Sky
by Dalnim
Summary: AU. Harry Potter was abandoned by the Dursleys to the streets and later found by an Unspeakable, who tells him of his identity, inheritance and destiny. Under a new name Harry sets out to right the wrongs that has been done to him.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: In honor of the first day of my summer holidays I have decided to start posting my long-term fic Sky and here is the first chapter. I have decided to split this story to different parts and the first part contains Harry's childhood till he goes to Hogwarts. Also Harry will be called Sky throughout the story, which will be explained in later chapters. Hope you enjoy. :)**

**Summary: AU. Harry Potter was abandoned by the Dursleys to the streets and later found by an Unspeakable, who tells him of his indentity, inheritance and destiny. Under a new name Harry sets out to right the wrongs that has been done to him.**

**Warnings: Mentions of abuse, mild swearing**

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize from Harry Potter -series belongs to JK Rowling.**

* * *

**PART ONE**

**October 1985**

The night fell upon the streets of London and a little girl shivered from the cold.

"Are we there yet?" she asked from a young boy, who walked beside her.

"Nearly, it's just around the corner. Fox said it's a good place and that we should be able to live there as long as…" the boy said before he stopped dead.

"Did you hear that?" he asked quietly.

"What?" the girl whispered.

"That muffled sound… it sounds like someone's in pain."

The girl looked around searchingly and saw a small, dark figure on the ground few feet away from them.

"Look! There's something there." she said quietly.

"Stay here, I'm going to check it out."

"Blake, don't leave me alone, I'm scared."

"Fine, but stay close to me" the boy, Blake, said and walked over to the dark figure.

The full moon slipped from behind the clouds and lightened up the street revealing a beaten little boy lying on the ground. He wasn't moving and they could see a small pool of blood around him in the moonlight.

"Is – Is he dead?" the girl asked close to tears of the sight in front of her.

"No, he's still breathing, but just barely." Blake said checking on the boy. "Dora, help me lift him up and then go to tell Fox, this is beyond my skills."

The girl, Dora, obeyed and started running towards a deserted shack. Blake followed, the boy in his arms as fast as he could. In the shack was a young girl, preparing a bed for the beaten boy.

"Oh my God! Who could do something like that to a child? He can't be more than four years old." she asked while Blake but the boy down on a mattress.

"I don't know, Fox, but if I ever find out, I'll make sure that they'll pay!" Blake wowed his eyes filled with anger.

Fox started tending the boy's wounds and clear the blood off of him. The boy was pale, scrawny and looked like he had never gotten enough to eat. He had raven black hair, round classes which were fixed with a duct tape and a scar in his forehead that looked like a lightning bolt.

"He has five broken ribs, broken leg, cuts and bruises and some internal bleeding. A few of the cuts and bruises are older, not yet completely healed. There are also signs of serious malnourishment and neglect." Fox said grimly. "I'll do what I can, but it's really up to him if he'll survive."

Blake closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself so that he wouldn't scare Dora with his anger before nodding.

"Is he going to be okay?" Dora asked quietly.

"I don't know, Dora" Fox whispered. "I don't know."

* * *

**A year later, October, 1986**

"Happy Birthday!" Dora yelled enthusiastically, jumping up and down, her black hair falling on to her face.

"Mmm…Go away Dora." A six-year-old boy mumbled sleepily.

"Aww, come on Sky! It's a beautiful day outside and we are going out for your birthday!"

"But it's not my birthday."

"Yes it is! It's been exactly a year since we found you, our medical miracle." She grinned.

"Argh, I told you not to call me that." Sky complained rubbing his eyes.

"But it's true! Fox said it was a medical miracle that you survived and even bigger that you were fine just after two days! You were so small and scrawny for a five-year-old that we thought you were much younger…"

"Was not"

"Were too!"

"Was not"

"Were too"

"Were too"

"Was not"

"Haa haa! You said "was not" I win." Sky said smugly.

"Not fair!" Dora protested.

"Knock it off you two." Fox said entering the room. She had a long yellow hair, which was tied to the back and deep blue eyes. She always had the motherly look on her face when she reprimanded the two, even though she was only seventeen-years old herself.

"But…" Dora started.

"No buts!" Fox said firmly before smiling to Sky. "Happy birthday Sky."

"Um…Thanks" Sky said shyly and a bit awkwardly.

"Now get dressed we are leaving to the park soon. There's some breakfast in the kitchen for you Sky."

"Thanks" Sky said running after Dora, to prevent her from eating his share.

It had been a whole year since Dora and Blake had found him in the streets beaten to half dead. It had been hard for Sky to accept that there were people who really cared about him and that he wasn't a freak. That was the first thing Fox and Blake taught him; that he wasn't a freak.

When Sky had woken up two days after they had found him, Fox had asked him his name. Sky hadn't known what to answer her. All his life he had been called a freak or a boy or just waste of space, but he knew that none of those were his real name. Sky had a feeling that he had a real name, but couldn't remember what it was. In the end he had just answered the name he had been called the most; Freak. Sky could still remember Fox looking at him gently while telling him that he wasn't Freak. Behind her Blake had looked absolutely murderous and Sky could hear him muttering about what he would do if he ever met the people who had hurt him.

Dora had come up with his new name – Sky.

Fox, Blake and Dora had taught him how to survive in the streets and not to trust adults. _"They will only keep you for as long as they please and then toss you out like a filthy animal." _Blake had said. Fox later on told Sky that Blake was disowned and thrown out from his family when he was seven. After that he had lived in multiple orphanages and foster families for three years, but didn't fit in anywhere. In the end he had ran away when he was ten and lived in the streets since then. Fox had met him when he had ended up in front of her home beaten up.

_"Blake pissed off a local gang when he was eleven. He insulted the leader of the gang and they nearly killed him. I lived with my mother at the time in a little cottage outside the town. She was a nurse in a local hospital before she got caught of drug-use and got sacked. She taught me everything I know about healing." _Fox had said. _"Anyway, we nursed Blake back to health and he lived with us for few months until my mother took an overdose of drugs and died. Blake and I fled the house together and continued living in the streets."_

Sky had also asked about Dora. _"I found her in King Cross – station roughly four years ago. She was a little two-year-old all alone in the station. We don't know what happened to her, if she was abandoned or forgotten. We filed a notice at the police station, but no one ever answered it."_

During the year he had spent with Dora, Blake and Fox, Sky had learned to trust them and regarded them as his family. There were still a lot of things he was uncomfortable with, like hugs and kisses and birthdays. Sky had never celebrated his birthday before and felt really awkward about it. In fact he didn't even know when his real birthday was, but Dora insisted that they celebrate his birthday the day they found him, like they did for everyone else. Sky had tried to argue with them that he didn't need a birthday, but they insisted and there was nothing he could do.

Now the twenty-eighth of October, as he ran to the little kitchen of the shack they were living at the moment, he tried to get rid of the awkward feeling and enjoy the day with his family.

"Yes, pancakes! Where did you found pancakes, Blake?" Dora asked while stuffing them into her mouth.

"You know that café few blocks away? They had pancakes for breakfast and I was able to nick a few without them noticing." Blake said. "Oh, and happy birthday Sky."

"Thanks." Sky mumbled.

"What are we doing today?" Dora asked.

"Well, I've got a few jobs to do, but you are going into the park. I'll join you later in the evening." Blake said and left leaving Dora bouncing up and down on his seat.

"Wee to the park! What are we waiting for?"

* * *

Sky, Dora and Fox spent the whole day playing various games and having a good time. Blake joined them at dinnertime and Sky couldn't remember ever being happier. When they were leaving back home Blake pulled him aside.

"Come with me."

He led them to the small hill next to a cemetery called the Saint Mary's. They sat down on the ground watching the sunset in silence until Blake spoke.

"I know I have always told you not to trust adults and that they will always end up letting you down, but not all of them are like that. I don't want you to grow up bitter, hating everyone in the world, like I have. I want you to grow up independent and strong, but still able to trust. Don't bury yourself into hate and bitterness. Learn to forgive the ones who deserve it. Not everyone is like your parents or even mine. We have just had a very bad luck when it comes to adults. If one day you have a change to get out of the streets, take it. There is so much to see out there."

"Why are you telling me this?" Sky asked.

"I just wanted you to know." Blake said standing up. "Here, take this." Blake said while handing Sky a knife that he always carried with him.

"I… You… I can't take this." Sky stuttered. "It's the only thing you have from your family."

"Yes. Do you know what this knife is?"

Sky just shook his head wordless.

"It's a suicide knife. There is a tradition in my family that when someone gets disowned, he or she will be given a knife like this, so that he can kill himself with it. The family considers the disowned person a disgrace to the family, and the only way to spare the family from the shame is for that person to take his life. I refused to follow that tradition."

"Why are you giving it to me?" Sky asked.

"Because… I have decided to move on. I carried this knife with me, so that I would never forget, and if someday I would meet them again I would take my revenge." Blake said. "I want to give this knife to you as a symbol of forgiveness, and a proof that I could let the past go and keep on living. All these years, I have lived in the past and achieved nothing. Now I've decided to let all the hatred and bitterness go, and start to think of the future."

Sky just nodded mutely staring at the knife.

"I'm going to ask Fox to marry me on her birthday." Blake said after a while.

"Really?" Sky asked his emerald eyes shining.

"Yea, and I'll get a good job, buy a house and then we can together take care of you and Dora. Maybe someday we'll even be able to send you both to school." Blake said ruffling Sky's mop of a hair.

They watched the last rays of the sun disappear in silence before standing up. Blake pulled Sky into a tight hug.

"Happy birthday Sky, never forget to live". He whispered.

They walked in silence back towards the shack both immersed in their thoughts. Sky could hear Dora's bubbling voice telling some kind of story from the distance and smiled.

Right before they entered the shack, Sky could feel a shiver run down his spine, and the next thing he knew was darkness.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you for reading, I hope you liked it. Please review and tell me how I did. The next chapter will be posted soon.**

**- Dalnim**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Here's the chapter two of Sky.**

**Warnings: Swearing, mentions of abuse**

_'Thoughts'_

* * *

Marcus Lee was walking down the streets of the more remote part of London. It was the anniversary of the death of his wife and daughter. They had died among the last victims of the Dark Lord Voldemort's era – only few days before little Harry Potter had defeated him. Many people thought that Voldemort – or You-know-who, as they called him – had died that fateful night in Godric's Hollow, but Marcus knew better. At the time, he had still been the Head of the Unspeakables, and stuff like that was always given for his department to investigate. Marcus himself had been one of the Unspeakables who went to the Potters' house – or what was left of it anyway – and found out that the traces of the magic happened there, referred to some ancient form of magic that Marcus had never faced before in his years as an Unspeakable.

Nevertheless they found out that Harry Potter had not killed Voldemort, only destroyed his body, and due to that unknown form of magic Voldemort had survived, even if only as a weak spirit form. Marcus and the two other Unspeakables who had investigated the case with him, immediately informed the Minister of their findings, but the new Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge – who had been named as the Minister when Millicent Bagnold had been killed a few months before Voldemort's downfall – refused to believe them and threatened to sack them from the Ministry if they ever uttered a word from their findings. Of course he had really no power in the Department of the Mysteries, since only the Head of the Department could hire or fire people there and the Head was voted by the other Unspeakables from among them.

In all his years as Head and as an agent before, Marcus had dealt with all kinds of people and knew that it was better to keep quiet for now and strike at the best opportunity. After all, he knew that he couldn't get Fudge sacked, when almost all the people in magical Britain had his back. They foolishly thought that Voldemort's downfall was Fudge's credit, because Voldemort was defeated so quickly after his becoming to a Minister – and failed to see that Fudge really had nothing to do with the matter.

After the meeting with the Minister, Marcus decided it was time for him to take his leave of absence, which he had planned to take before Voldemort had declared an all-out war. Now that the world was somewhat at peace again, he wanted to take time to heal from the pain that came from the death of his wife and daughter. Also he had neither strength nor desire to deal with as incompetent Minister as Fudge.

And so, he had left the Ministry and travelled around the world, each year returning to Britain only for the anniversary of his family's death. Now as he walked down the streets from the cemetery, a deserted shack caught his eye. He heard a loud bang followed by a red light and saw the shack burst into flames. Only one thing, Marcus knew, could do such a thing – Fiendfyre.

Even though Marcus knew that nothing could survive a fiendfyre and doubted that there had been anyone in the old shack, he couldn't help but move towards it. Something was pulling him there, and he didn't know what it was. Perhaps it was the faint emerald light, he thought he had seen shine in the shack just before it burst into the flames. Nevertheless he was at the shack putting down the flames. Fiendfyre was almost impossible to control, but the Unspeakables had their ways for everything.

It took him a few minutes to get the fire under control, before he was free to investigate the remains of the shack. He started from the inside of the shack, and noticed to his utmost horror that someone had been living there. He saw the traces of a burnt body that after a few scanning spells turned out to be a young girl. Marcus wondered briefly if the emerald light had come from the girl, while moving towards, what seemed to have been the door to the shack.

Right in front of the door he found two more bodies, one of a seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy's, and one of a five or six-year-old boy. What shocked Marcus the most was not the older boy who had burned almost completely, but the younger one, who wasn't burnt at all. The boy was unconscious, but clearly still breathing. He had no burn marks at all and Marcus could feel a faint tingle of magic around him. _'The emerald light had to come from him.'_ Marcus mused. _'He's clearly a wizard, but there is something wrong with his magical core.'_

Marcus ran a few more basic scans, but found nothing physically wrong with him. He was just magically exhausted. Marcus heard faint voices coming from the few houses that were close to the cemetery. _'Of course the muggles would've seen the fire.'_ Marcus thought. He scooped the boy in his arms and apparated to his home in Britain. He couldn't leave the boy there in the risk of exposing their world to the muggles, since there was no way anyone could've survived a fire like that. He knew there was nothing he could do to the other bodies and that it was better to let the muggles deal with them.

Marcus laid the boy down on to the bed that once belonged to his daughter. He started to clean the boy from the dust and changed his clothes to clean ones. _'They must've been street children…'_ Marcus mused as he watched the old ragged clothes the boy had been wearing. The first thing he noticed about the boy when he cleaned him was that he had lots of scars all over his body, especially in his back. He could make out a few lines that had clearly come from a belt. Marcus felt a wave of anger run through him when he thought about whoever had done it to the boy. The boy was incredibly thin and you could see the bones through his skin – he had no fat or muscle in his body. He had a thick raven black hair, which pointed out to every direction possible. He also had round, broken glasses that seemed to be repaired many times with duct tape.

Marcus was just removing the glasses from him when he saw something that shocked him more than anything else he had seen that night. _'It can't be… It's not possible. He was supposed to be safe, away with some muggles – Harry.'_

The boy had a scar shaped like a lightning bolt above his right eye. The famous scar that Voldemort had given him the night he fell; the scar that marked Harry Potter – the Boy-who-lived.

Thoughts were buzzing in Marcus' head trying to find the answers. _'Dumbledore assured everyone that he was safe. What could've happened to him? Why was he living in the streets? Where all those scars came from? What is wrong with his magical gore?'_

Marcus fetched some potions that helped his recovery from the magical exhaustion and sat down next to him. _'He looks just like his father, James.'_ He thought a faint, sad smile tucking his lips. Marcus had been a close friend of the Potters before they died, and had babysitted little Harry many times when Lily and James were on an Order business or otherwise needed some time alone. Marcus himself had never joined the Order of the Phoenix, since he had never really liked Dumbledore and wouldn't allow himself to become a pawn of his. Marcus had always seen through that grandfatherly mask on his face and never fallen for his compulsions. He knew that Dumbledore wasn't evil or 'Dark' at heart, but he also wasn't the saint that everyone thought him to be. Marcus also didn't approve his methods in the name of 'the Greater Good' as he called his cause, but knew he couldn't convince him to change them. After all a leader, can't lead a leader.

Marcus was brought out of his musing by the boy – or Harry – stirring. _'He has Lily's eyes' _he noted as Harry opened his eyes. Marcus could see the confusion in them, before it turned to a fear. He was up from the bed before Marcus could even blink and ran to the corner of the room at the sight of Marcus. Harry folded his hands around himself and curled to the corner trying to look as small as possible as if waiting to be hit.

"Shh… It's alright Harry," Marcus said soothingly. "My name is Marcus Lee. I was a friend of your parents." He tried to say, but Harry seemed to react even worse at the mention of his parents. His face lost all color and Marcus had to wonder what he had been told about his parents.

"Nobody's going to hurt you here. I'm not gonna hurt you."

Marcus tried for a long time to get Harry to understand that he was safe there, but nothing worked. In the end he did the only thing he could try anymore and whispered:

"_Legilimens_"

Never before had Marcus seen anything like it. Harry's mind was a chaos. Memories and emotions were tangled with each other and he had multiple blocks in his mind. Marcus could recognize the magical signature around the blocks and he had hard time keeping his anger in check_. 'Dumbledore. That fucking old coot has gone too far. He has blocked his magic and his memories...'_

Marcus' thoughts were interrupted by a faint voice, barely above a whisper, from somewhere deep in Harry's mind.

_"Who are you?"_

Marcus dug deeper into his mind towards the sound and finally saw a shape of Harry's mind. He was tied with chains to a pillar, but could still speak. The shape looked like Harry probably would look, if he had grown up like a normal child.

_"Harry?"_ Marcus asked carefully.

_"Harry?"_ The shape spoke thoughtfully. _"Yes, I was called by that name once."_

_"What do you mean?"_ Marcus asked. _"What are you called now?"_

_"I am called Sky. But you haven't answered my question; who are you?"_

_"My name is Marcus Lee. I was a friend of your parents once."_

_"Ah, I remember you. You visited our house many times when I was a baby. Now, why are you here?"_

_"I couldn't get you to calm down and I had to know what had happened to you in order to help you. I found out that you have multiple blocks in your mind and magic."_

_"Yes, the man with a long white beard blocked them and chained me into this pillar when I was fifteen-month- old. The conscious part of me can't remember anything about the time before I was brought to the Dursleys and very little from that time either. I have lived in the streets for a year now."_

_"The Dursleys? Why can't you remember it?"_

_"I was kept in the dark most of the time. There are parts that the conscious part of me can remember, like most of the beatings, but otherwise only darkness. There are only scars left from my time there, both mental and physical."_

_"Is there a way to free you from the chains? I don't know if I am powerful enough to destroy the blocks."_

_"The block on my magic has already weakened. I have fought them for years and have been able to weaken it so that I could use my magic to safe my life when needed like I did tonight, but it is still too strong for me to break completely. I shall need your help."_

_"What can I do?"_

_"There is a place in the United States called Phoenix. You must take me there, so that I can heal. There we can unite our powers and break them, but it will take time."_

_"Very well, I shall take you there tomorrow."_ Marcus said and retired from Harry's mind.

Harry was still curled in the corner of the bedroom watching him warily. Marcus took out his wand and cast a sleeping charm on him so he could move him back to the bed and go to sleep himself. As he walked to his own bedroom he thought about what he had learned. He could now understand more about Harry's reactions towards him and probably other adults as well. He also knew now better than to mention his parents to him since he could remember nothing about them and probably thought that the Dursleys were his parents. Once again he had to use all his Occlumency to keep himself from blowing up the house when he thought about the Dursleys. What shook him the most though, was the level of maturity that the unconscious part of Harry showed. When he thought about it, Marcus had seen it even in his eyes behind all that fear, before he entered Harry's mind.

_'No six-year-old should suffer like he has.'_

The next morning Marcus woke up early and went to make breakfast. He had asked a house elf to buy groceries before going to sleep the night before, but preferred to make his breakfast himself. He had never liked enslaving anyone so he had an agreement with the elves that they could have days off and he paid them in various ways – they refused to accept money as a payment.

While making breakfast he wondered how he could make Harry – or Sky as he was now called – to eat some breakfast and come to Phoenix with him. He could always use the sleeping charm again, but preferred to take him willingly. He loaded the tray with food and carried it to the room Harry – err… Sky was staying. He knocked the door softly so that Harry – Sky could know that he was coming and not freak out immediately.

Marcus found him sitting in a same corner as the night before, watching him warily from under his bangs.

"I brought you some food." Marcus said gently as he laid the tray on the bed.

He kneeled down to the same level as Sky, but kept his distance so he would not frighten him.

"Sky" He said gently and noticed that the name got some reaction out of him. "I want you to know that no one is going to hurt you while you're with me. Not me and not anyone. Do you understand? You can only nod or shake your head."

Harry – Sky regarded him for a long time before giving a tiny nod. Marcus wondered if he really understood or just nodded in the fear of getting hit if he had shaken his head.

"Good, now we need to leave here at noon and travel to a place where we can start healing you, but first there is some food for you. You can eat as much as you like. Is there anything you'd like to ask?" Marcus asked gently.

He could see some hesitation in his eyes, but in the end he just shook his head. Marcus concealed a sigh and left the room. He knew it would take time to get anything out of him, but he couldn't help hoping for some reaction.

_'I'll just need to be patient with him.'_

* * *

Sky was utterly confused. He had woken up in a strange house and couldn't remember what had happened. The last thing he could remember was that he was walking with Blake towards the Shack and then everything went black.

There was a man in the house who had told him that he was a friend of his parents, which had led to his instincts taking over and trying to hide himself. The man had tried to assure him that he was safe with him, but how could he be? You couldn't trust adults and you couldn't especially trust friends of his parents. The man had spoken to him for what felt like hours, but in the end he had just spoken a weird word and fallen silent for a long time, just staring at him. When the man had come out of his trance he had pointed him with a stick that shot some kind of white light towards him and he had fallen asleep.

Somehow he had ended up on the bed again when he awoke, and had to move back to the corner to feel safer. A little later the man had come in with a tray full of food that he claimed was for him. Sky had never had that much food to eat and was very suspicious about it. Then the man had kneeled in front of him, though kept his distance, and once again tried to assure him that he was safe with him. He had given him a chance to answer by nodding or shaking his head. Sky had regarded him trying to think his options. There was a small part of him that wanted to trust the unknown man, but in the end Sky didn't want to risk getting beaten, so he gave a small nod. The man had said that he was taking him somewhere to heal and Sky didn't know what he meant by that. He had almost asked, but the lessons from his parents were carved deep in his mind and he knew that asking questions was forbidden. The man had left the room after telling him that he could eat as much as he liked, so there he was, staring at the tray full of food in front of him weighing his options.

Sky knew that he couldn't escape, since he had tried to open the door and the window the moment he woke up, but couldn't open them. He could go with the man and try to escape in the new place or he could try to refuse and probably get beaten. In the end he decided to go willingly and try to escape on the journey and try to find Dora, and for that he needed all the strength he could get so he started eating.

_'Don't worry Dora, I'll find you.'_

* * *

At noon Marcus opened the door to the room Sky was staying. He was still sitting in the same corner, but the breakfast tray was nearly empty. Marcus approached him slowly.

"Sky, it is time to go." He took a scarf, which he had transformed into a Portkey, from his pocket and held it for Sky to grab.

"I need you to stand up and take a hold from this scarf."

After a little hesitation Sky complied.

"You may feel a little dizzy or sick, but don't lose your hold from the scarf. I shall explain everything to you when we arrive at our destination."

Sky looked at him with wary eyes, but tightened his hold from the scarf. Marcus muttered the words 'Portus indu Phoenix' and activated the Portkey. He felt the familiar tuck behind his navel as they disappeared.

They arrived at a large mansion that glowed with light. It was colored with different shades of white and gold and surrounded by multiple gardens and fountains. Suddenly flashes of light dazzled them and hundreds of phoenixes appeared in front of them. It was the most beautiful sight Marcus had ever seen and from the look of Sky's face he was thinking the same.

_'Welcome to the House of Phoenix. Do not be afraid, for we shall not hurt you.'_ Marcus couldn't tell where the voice was coming from, whether it spoke in his head or in the outside, but in the end didn't think it was important as the voice continued.

_'It is an honor to have you among us at last Sky Electus. For centuries have we waited for you and now you have come_.'

Marcus could see the confusion in Sky's face that must have showed in his own too, and decided to spare him from asking.

"What do you mean by that? How did you know we were coming?"

_'Phoenixes know many things. Our songs have for years spread the word of an Electus that shall free us from the web that binds us to this house. Many years ago a Dark wizard called Daemon acquired almost every phoenix eggs in this world and brought them here. He attempted to rid the world from the light that we phoenixes bring with us and destroy the balance between Light and Dark. The spell he tried to use would have killed the eggs and all the other phoenixes alive, but Daemon underestimated the power of phoenixes and the Light. Instead of destroying us the spell bound us into this house.'_

"How do you know that Sky is the one who can free you?" Marcus asked.

_'We can feel the power in him. But before anything else, we shall help to heal him.'_

As the phoenix finished talking, the doors to the mansion opened and the phoenixes scattered leaving only three of them – a white, a black and a gold-red – to take Sky and Marcus inside. The mansion was huge. There were multiple rooms; bedrooms, training rooms, libraries, saloons and dining rooms, all furnished with white, gold and red colored furniture.

_'This house once belonged to Godric Gryffindor, but no one has claimed its ownership since then. You can settle down in any of the rooms you want.'_ The white phoenix said and flamed away with the others.

* * *

Sky sat on the bed in a bedroom of one of the many in the huge mansion all escape plans forgotten. He was utterly convinced that he was having a dream – a very realistic dream, but a dream nevertheless. _'This can't be real. I did not just appear here by touching a scarf, nor did I hear a bird – a _phoenix_ – speaking to me, for real. Phoenixes are a myth and there is just no way that there would be a house full of them… Yes, I'm dreaming, or that man drugged me and I'm having hallucinations.'_

There was a knock on the door and the man stepped inside. He walked towards him, but stopped after a few steps. He took the same stick – which he had waved, before Sky had fallen asleep the night before – from his sleeve and waved it in front of him, muttering some words Sky couldn't make out. Suddenly a comfy chair appeared out of nowhere a few meters from the bed that Sky was sitting on. The man walked over it and sat down.

"I know this must be all very confusing for you, but I shall try to explain everything, and if you have any questions feel free to ask them. I will answer the best as I can."

Sky barely registered what the man was saying. He was busy gaping the chair. _'Drugs it is.'_ He thought and suddenly all fear forgotten Sky felt his anger growing.

"What the hell did you give me?" He snapped taking up a pose that he had learned from Blake when he was angry. "LSD? DMT?

The man looked utterly confused.

"Pardon?"

"What drugs did you give me?!" Sky was all but screaming.

"Drugs?" The man asked looking even more confused. Suddenly his face cleared. "Ahh, that Muggle thing. Isn't it very unhealthy?"

Sky stared at the man an incredulous look on his face. _'He's completely nuts. That's just great. I was kidnapped by a nutter.'_

"Muggle?" Sky asked deciding to play along, while trying to think of a way to escape.

"Oh, Muggles are non-magic folk."

"Magic?" Sky stated incredulously.

"Oh, right. Err… What if we just started fresh? My name is Marcus Lee and I'm a wizard."

_'He's even crazier than I thought.'_

"I know you probably won't believe me, but that's the truth. Magic is real and so are witches and wizards and many other things that you may think only as a muggle fairytale, like the phoenixes you saw earlier. Now, this is a wand." The man – Marcus Lee – said, once again taking the stick from his sleeve. "A wand is commonly used to practice magic, but there are other ways, like wandless magic, but I'll tell you about those later."

"So, why are you telling me this?"

"Because you're a wizard too, Sky."

_'And now he's completely off his rocker.'_

"Yea, right."

"You were born to a wizard called James Potter and a witch called Lily Evans Potter the 31th of July 1980. You were named Harry James Potter, after your grandfather Harold Evans and your father."

"Sorry to inform you, but you've got the wrong kid. My family name was Dursley and my name is Sky."

"The Dursleys are your aunt and uncle by your mother's side. They have always hated magic. You were left with them after the deaths of your parents."

"What happened? How did they die?"

"During the time when you were born, there was a war in the wizarding world. A Dark wizard called Voldemort had risen into power. He wanted to kill all the muggleborn and half-blood wizards and witches and 'purify' the blood in the wizarding world. People lived in fear every day, it was a horrible time. You along with your parents went into hiding under a Fidelius charm, because our spy in the mist of Voldemort's ranks informed us that he was coming after you. A Fidelius charm is a charm that keeps the secret information hidden with a Secret-Keeper.

"In this case your parents had put a Fidelius around your house and only one person had the information of your location. Unfortunately they trusted a wrong person and the Secret-Keeper revealed the information to Voldemort, who came to your house on Halloween 1981 and killed your parents. He tried to kill you too, but the killing curse bounded back at him destroying his body and he vanished leaving you with that lightning bolt scar on your forehead, which makes you one of the most famous persons in the wizarding world."

Sky was silent for a moment, trying to comprehend all he had heard. He had always wondered how he had gotten the scar on his forehead and the man's story explained why the Dursleys had always hated him. Could it be true? Some part of him was starting to trust the man, but then his instincts kicked in screaming 'don't trust adults'.

"And how'd you know all this?" Sky asked defiantly.

"I told you back in my house that I was a friend of your parents. I was there when you were born. And I was there investigating the ruins of your house."

They sat in silence for a long time before the man spoke again.

"You look like your father, you know, though you have your mother's eyes. I have a picture here for you, if you'd like to see them. It was taken a few days before they died." He said and levitated the picture to Sky.

Sky stared at the floating photo before hesitatingly taking it to his hands. He couldn't take his eyes of the three people in it even to notice that they were moving, nor that the man had left the room.

In the picture there were two young people holding a little baby in their arms and waving happily to the camera. The baby was a spitting image of the man, his father. They had the same nose and a mouth and a thick black hair that was pointing in every possible direction. But the eyes were his mother's. The woman had a long fiery red hair and emerald green eyes, exactly the same shape and color as the baby had.

Like Sky had.

The man hadn't lied. They really were his parents.

* * *

Marcus sighed as he closed the room. He didn't think Sky had even noticed that he had left. _'It's going to be a hard and long process for Sky to deal with all the ghost of his past and heal. But I'll help him get through it, whatever the cost.'_

He walked to his room the next door and saw an owl waiting for him. It was one the Unspeakables used when sending formal letters. Marcus could already guess the contents of it; every year around this time they sent him the same letter trying to get him to come back. He always sent a polite answer refusing the offer. He wasn't still ready to go back, especially now that he had Sky to take care of.

Marcus cast a tempus charm and saw that it was almost 2 pm. He had planned to start Sky's healing process after lunch by speaking with the chained part of Sky's mind and was wondering if he should do it without Sky noticing or asking him for permission. Marcus didn't like invading anyone's mind, but he knew that it was necessary in Sky's case. In the end he decided to try and explain Legilimency to Sky and if that didn't work he would have to do it stealthily.

Marcus went down to the dining room around three. The phoenixes were nowhere in sight, but it didn't bother him, as the white one had informed him that they would spent most of their time in the gardens. Marcus had summoned a few of his house-elves to the mansion to take care of cooking.

He was just sitting down in the table when Sky entered the room. He sat down hesitatingly to the seat opposite Marcus, never taking his eyes of Marcus' face. The house-elves brought the food to the table and they sat in silence while eating.

"Do you have any questions about the things I told you earlier?" Marcus asked.

"I- I can't be a wizard. I don't know any magic." Sky mumbled.

"Sure you do. You just don't know how to use it yet." Marcus said almost laughing out loud at the thought of Harry Potter not having any magic. _'Now that would be a scandal.'_

"That is what I'm going to teach you as soon as we get all the blocks destroyed from you, among other things."

"Blocks? What blocks?"

"There are multiple blocks in your magic and your mind, which is why you haven't been properly able to use magic and can't remember anything about the time before the Dursleys."

"How can they be removed?"

"They were cast by a very powerful wizard called Albus Dumbledore, and must be destroyed by a more powerful force, which is why we are in this house among the phoenixes. Now this method requires for me to enter your mind and use Legilimency, which is a form of mind magic, if you'll allow me."

"That's what you did for me yesterday!" Sky exclaimed.

"Yes, and I would like to apologize for entering your mind without permission, but it was necessary, so that I could help you. There is a form of yourself, chained in your mind and I need to break the chains so that we can destroy the blocks and heal your mind. It is a long and hard process, because we need to release your magic and memories little by little, so that it won't overwhelm you or cause an explosion. I shall start teaching you Occlumency, which is another mind art that lets you sort your memories and keep your mind in order. It also shields you from Legilimency attacks, but I shall leave that for another time. For now the most important thing is to get rid of the blocks. I think that with Occlumency the blocks will be gone in six months and then I can start teaching you how to use your magic."

"But I can't stay here! Dora, Fox and Blake will be worried. They probably think I'm kidnapped or something. I need to go home."

It took Marcus a moment before he realized what Sky was talking about.

"You – You don't remember what happened, before I brought you to my house?" Marcus asked carefully. He hadn't realized that Sky hadn't mentioned anything about the shack or the people who had lived with him before.

"Why –What happened? I just remember walking home with Blake and then everything went black."

"You don't remember the explosion?"

"No! I told you – Wait what explosion?" Sky asked his face paling. "Is – Is everyone okay?

"I'm sorry, Sky. Someone used a dark magic spell and put the shack in fire and it exploded. You were the only survivor."

"NO! You're lying! They're not dead! It's not possible, they're not dead!" Sky yelled tears flowing down his cheeks. Suddenly the air thickened and Marcus could feel a large magical outburst surrounding the room and all the glassware in the room exploded into little pieces. A moment later Sky collapsed from magical exhaustion.

_'This is going to be even harder than I thought.'_

* * *

**1 year later (plus a year of time travel) 1987, November**

It had been roughly two years (counting the time they had been in the past) since Marcus and Sky had arrived to the House of Phoenix for the first time – two very busy and action-packed years.

Sky had spent two months mourning the loss of his family not speaking and barely eating anything. He had spent most of the time cooped up in his room or walking through the gardens. Marcus had delayed the beginning of his training in order to give him some time to grieve. A few times he had spoken to him, telling him stories about the wizarding world or his parents, but most of the time he had left him alone.

After the two months Sky came to Marcus determined to begin his healing process. Marcus started teaching him Occlumency and every day they weakened the blocks in his mind and his magic. Marcus didn't know if it was the new determination or the fact that Sky was an incredibly fast learner, but after four months all the blocks in his magic and mind were gone.

The first thing Marcus noticed when Sky's magic was free, was that he was more powerful than Marcus could ever have imagined. He was clearly a lord-level wizard and could become even more powerful than Dumbledore when his magic matured. It became even more important for Marcus to teach Sky how to wield his power, so that he wouldn't accidently hurt someone.

During the time of weakening the blocks Marcus taught Sky other things that didn't require magic, like reading and writing. He also started teaching him the basics of muggle material arts.

After destroying the blocks in Sky's mind and magic they found out he had a few special abilities that few other wizards had. For one he was a metamorphmagus; he could change every part in his body from skin color to height at will. Marcus himself had a little bit of the same skill, but he could only change his skin, hair and eye color and his height.

Sky also appeared to have a photographic memory, which helped his learning a lot. At first he was receiving memories from his past almost every day, but over the years the speed got slower. Now, after two years, he got a missing memory every other month or so. Marcus thought that it took so long time for Sky to get his memories back because of his photographic memory.

For two years Marcus had trained Sky in magic, history and customs of the wizarding world, material arts, herbology, runes, arithmancy and potions travelling in different countries all over the world. Few times they had even taken time turners to go back in time.

Once Sky had reached a point in his education that he could go to Hogwarts like other wizards when he turned eleven in four years' time, Marcus offered him a chance to complete the Unspeakable training. Marcus had considered a long time before offering Sky a change to join the Unspeakable agents at such a young age, but in the end decided to accept the reality that even though Sky was only six and a half-years-old, he was too mature to be considerate a child. Marcus had tried to give Sky a little bit of his childhood back during their travels by taking him to amusement parks and zoos instead of training all the time, but knew that it couldn't get his innocence back.

Sky had accepted the offer knowing that with his ability and will to learn he would just be bored in a normal school. He planned to finish the Unspeakable training and write his OWLs and NEWTs in a few years before joining the Unspeakables as an active agent, which Marcus had promptly approved, since it was a time for him to get back to the midst of the Unspeakables too. _'Poor trainees, they don't know what hit them when Sky starts their training.'_

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review and give me some feedback of the story. Cookies for 917brat for being the first reviewer. The more reviews the faster updates.**

**- Dalnim**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thanks for reviews. Here's the third chapter of Sky. **

**Hope you enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: Everything you recognize from Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling**

* * *

Sky was watching a scene that seemed to be from Halloween. He knew that he was watching a memory from his past, since he had received many during the time he had spent with Marcus and could now separate a dream from a memory. In the memory he saw a giant man making his way into the ruins of a house. _'This must be from the time I was rescued.'_ He thought faintly. Sky had watched months ago the memory where Voldemort had killed his parents and tried to kill him, but it had ended when Voldemort had vanished.

Sky could hear the huge man weeping when he saw the bodies of his parents and his exclaims of surprise when he saw that he was alive. The giant – Hagrid was his name – scooped him into his arms and left the house. Outside they met a pale man with a shoulder-length, black hair – his godfather Sirius Black, the traitor who gave his parents away to Voldemort. It was hard for Sky to believe that the man could betray them after watching so many happy memories with him. Black was the best actor Sky had ever seen, faking all that love and fondness he showed in his actions, speech and features.

Black asked Hagrid to give baby Sky – or Harry, as he was called at the time – to him so that he could take care of him, but Hagrid insisted that he would take Harry to Dumbledore. Eventually Black gave up and told Hagrid to take his flying motorbike and take Harry somewhere safe. He gave baby Harry a kiss and told him that he loved him and in a faint whisper that Sky could barely hear, he said that he would come back for him after killing the traitor.

Sky woke up from the memory with a start. What had Black meant by killing the traitor? Wasn't he the traitor himself? Sky dug up from behind his Occlumency shields a memory where his parents asked Black to be their Secret-Keeper. For once Black had really been serious and agreed promising to die before betraying them. Sky could see the love and trust in his eyes as he said the words and once again wondered how the man could act so well.

Sky spent a long time pondering what the memory had meant, but couldn't come to any logical conclusion, until suddenly he was pulled into another memory. The memory contained him, his parents, Black and their other friend Peter Pettigrew, whom Black had killed among dozen muggles before he had gotten caught.

_"—have been watching all my properties."_ Black was saying. Sky could see that it was few days before Halloween from the calendar on the wall. _"I think they know that I'm your Secret-Keeper, though I guess I am pretty obvious choice."_

_"What do you think we should do?"_ His mother asked.

_"I was thinking of a sham."_ Black said. _"We switch the Secret-Keeper from me to Peter. We will both go hiding. The Death Eaters think it's me, because I'm the obvious choice so they will come after me and leave Peter alone. It would be a perfect sham."_

_"I think it might work."_ His father said. _"Are you willing to do this Peter?"_

_"Y-Yes, of course."_ Peter said.

The memory faded as they completed the switching of the Secret-Keeper. Sky jumped from the bed not caring what the time was, running to the second floor of the house where Marcus had set his room. They were residing in their summer home in Spain for a few days before they planned to visit Japan.

Sky opened the door to Marcus' room without bothering to knock and started shaking Marcus awake.

"Marcus, wake up."

"Mmm… Sky? What time is it? Is something wrong?" Marcus mumbled sleepily while casting tempus charm. It showed 3.30 am. "What are you doing up this early?"

"I had more memories."

"Memories? As in plural?" Marcus asked more awake.

"Yes, the first one was about the time when Hagrid took me out of the house and we met Black in the yard, and the second was few days before Halloween when my parents decided to switch the Secret-Keeper."

"Wait, what? Switch the Secret-Keeper? What are you talking about?"

"They switched it from Sirius to Peter Pettigrew! In the first memory Sirius whispered to me that he would come back for me after killing the traitor. That's when he went after Peter. They've got an innocent man in Azkaban!"

"Wow, calm down kiddo. Let's think about it. If what you say is true, Sirius didn't betray your parents, but that doesn't change the fact that he killed Pettigrew and twelve muggles."

"But how do we know if he really killed them? It could've been another ploy from Pettigrew, framing Sirius as a mass murderer. "

"There were witnesses there, Sky. You know that."

"And all the witnesses were muggles. A simple compulsion charm and they say whatever you want them to."

"Fine you're right, but how do you explain Pettigrew's death and Black laughing like a maniac?"

"Pettigrew could've faked his own death. He created that explosion – which killed the muggles – cut off his finger and transformed into his Animagus, disappearing to the sink among other rats. And what comes to Sirius' maniac behavior, a powerful cheering charm or something similar could do it." Sky listed.

"Fine, you've got a point there, but do you think that Pettigrew had the brains to pull all that off?" Marcus said thoughtfully. "He wasn't exactly the brightest wand in the holster."

"He fooled my parents for Merlin knows how long, didn't he?" Sky countered.

"Okay, we'll look into this more in the morning. Now go get some sleep. It's still a few hours to our morning workout." Marcus said yawning.

Sky nodded and turned around to head for the door. Before he reached it he could hear Marcus' soft snoring. Chuckling he left the room. No matter where Marcus was he could always fall asleep in seconds.

Sky had learned to trust Marcus over the years he had spent with him travelling and training. He appreciated Marcus' attempts to let him be a child every once in a while and enjoyed the moments when they were just having fun together. Nevertheless it wasn't enough for Sky to give up his training. He liked the duels between them, both magical and material arts and their study sessions. Marcus was a good teacher and Sky really loved to learn. Marcus often joked that he would be a Ravenclaw, if he ever went to Hogwarts and sometimes called him a prodigy, when he did something overly advanced.

Marcus also often told him stories about his parents and their time at Hogwarts. It turned out that Sky's grandfather Charlus Potter had been Marcus' mentor in his own Unspeakable training and that he had been a very close friend to the Potter family. _"I was ten years older than your father, so he pretty much looked up to me, along with his father. I was like an older brother to him."_ Marcus had once told him.

Marcus had also told him the reasons behind Voldemort coming after them, the prophecy and all. After a lot of thinking Sky decided that he would never go back to being Harry Potter again even if Voldemort came back or was defeated, and that it would be better if he was officially proclaimed dead. Sky would fight Voldemort with his own reasons and not because of some stupid prophecy.

Marcus had accepted his decision, but had said that it would be better to wait at least until the time when Harry had to go to Hogwarts to proclaim him dead. He wanted Dumbledore to find out his mistakes on his own and not just by reading from the paper. Marcus had also told Sky about the Potter fortune which made the Potters the third richest family in Magical Britain just after the Blacks and Malfoys. Together they had gone to Gringotts and transferred all the money, heirlooms and properties under Sky's name. They had also created multiple accounts under different identities for Sky for when he started as an active agent in the Department of Mysteries.

While in Gringotts they found out that Dumbledore had pulled some strings to get himself named Harry's magical guardian and had then totally ignored the will that his parents had left behind. After some persuasion the goblins agreed to remove Sky from under Dumbledore's power and allowed them to read the will. The will uncovered even more scheming on Dumbledore's part; Sky's parents clearly stated that Harry should under no circumstances be sent to live with the Dursleys and that his godfather Sirius Black was to be his guardian. The second choice for a guardian, if Sirius couldn't do it, was his godmother Alice Longbottom and then Marcus and after that multiple other names. Sky agreed with the goblins that they should honor his parents' will and name Marcus as his new magical guardian.

The Potters had multiple houses and mansions all over the world and to their great surprise they found the House of Phoenix among them. After freeing his magic, the House of Phoenix had chosen Sky as his new owner. The wards of the house had keyed themselves to him and accepted him as the owner. Sky had also been able to break the web that bound all the phoenixes to the house after he had mastered his magic. Sky could still remember the moment he had seen the web that bound the phoenixes and when he broke it.

**Flashback**

_It had been four months after Sky had decided to stop mourning and keep on living like he had promised to Blake. Marcus had just told him that he had completed his basic training and was now magically at the level where he should be if he wanted to enter Hogwarts as a normal kid when he turned eleven. He could now read and write and knew as much about the wizarding world like other kids, who had grown up in it. Though to be honest, Sky was a little bit ahead in the first-year curriculum in some subjects like charms and defense and Runes and Arithmancy wasn't really taught until third year. He had no wand of course, as wizards and witches couldn't get one until they turned eleven, so all the magic he did was wandless, which Sky found easy to do._

_Sky was sitting on the grass with Marcus while considering the training offer that Marcus had laid down to him, when suddenly bright flashes of light appeared in the air. Sky could see the different colored lights forming webs from the house to the garden where the phoenixes resided. _

_Sky didn't exactly know how he did it, but he kept thinking that he wanted the webs to break and disappear. He hadn't even known that he had been in some kind of trance, staring at the lines of light for half an hour before they broke. Sky had blinked and found Marcus staring at him a worried look on his face. _

_The white phoenix that had spoken them when they arrived thanked Sky for freeing them and promised to answer his calling if he ever needed them. He gave Sky one of his tail feathers as a gift, before vanishing with the other phoenixes. Marcus had told Sky that the white phoenix was one of the rarest phoenixes and it was even rarer to receive a willingly given feather from one. Knowing it was a great honor Sky had stored the feather safely away, but kept it with him wherever he went._

**End of Flashback**

One of the phoenixes, the only Shadow Phoenix that had resided in the house, had come back after a while wanting to bond with Sky. It was the same phoenix who had comforted Sky during his months of mourning, singing to him and keeping him company. Sky had accepted her as his familiar and had given her the name Shadow.

Now as Sky entered his room Shadow flew on to his shoulder singing him a lullaby that helped him sleep for a few hours before he had to get up for his morning training session.

* * *

Marcus woke up at six for his and Sky's training session. He wondered if Sky had slept at all after his memories. It would be a great injustice if Sirius had spent all those years in Azkaban while being innocent and it would be a huge blow for Fudge's reputation.

Marcus had left the Unspeakables right after reporting the events of Voldemort's downfall, so he didn't know the progress of Sirius' trial in detail. Fudge had ordered the Aurors to hunt Sirius down, so all Marcus knew was what he had heard from his contacts in the Auror corps.

As he walked to the training area of the house he resolved to find out the details of the case and get Sirius out of Azkaban, if he turned out to be innocent. He had always liked Sirius and many times gave him and James pranking ideas. Marcus had always felt sorry for Sirius trying to struggle with his family after getting sorted into Gryffindor and in the end helped him run away when he was sixteen.

Marcus could still remember the distress in the voice of the Patronus that Sirius had sent him only a week after the beginning of the summer holidays before his sixth-year. The message said that his parents were trying to force him to take the Dark Mark and join Voldemort and that he needed help. He asked Marcus to wait outside the Grimmauld Place at sunset prepared to apparate him away. Marcus had complied and waited for him at sunset. The sight that met him, when Sirius came running from the house was one that he could never forget. He was limping and bleeding, covered in numerous cuts and bruises and he looked like he had been under Cruciatus Curse multiple times. He asked Marcus to take him to the Potter Mansion before he lost consciousness. It had taken Doria Potter, James' mother, a week before she had been able to heal Sirius completely from his wounds.

"What are you thinking so hard?" A voice asked from behind him, pulling him back to reality.

"I was just speculating the possibilities of Sirius being innocent."

"And? Do you think it's possible?" Sky asked eagerly.

"I don't know. I was thinking about the time when I helped him run away from home… Do you remember the story?" Marcus asked. Sky had wanted to know more about the person who betrayed his parents, at one time and Marcus had told him about Sirius' past.

At Sky's nod he continued:

"Your grandmother healed his physical wounds, but from what your grandfather told me he was having some kind of inner battle the whole year. He wasn't as cheery as he once was, but got over it by the time of their seventh year and was normal again. I think that his mental wounds weren't as healed as the physical, which showed in his growing dislike towards Slytherins. The incident with Snape and Remus probably was the wake-up call for him and after that he gathered himself up again and moved on." Marcus said thoughtfully. "It is possible that the grief and anger towards Pettigrew was too much for him and it made him snap, and it was him that killed the muggles… I'll make a few Floo calls after breakfast and find out about his trial."

"I guess our trip to Japan have to be delayed." Sky said as he started to stretch.

"Yes, Yuki must be disappointed." Marcus smirked as he started to run.

"Oh, shut up."

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review and give me some constructive feedback. Next chapter we have Sirius' trial.**

**- Dalnim**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thanks for reviews. Here's the fourth Chap of Sky and we have Sirius properly enter the story. Hope you like it. :)**

**Disclaimer: Everything you recognize from Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling**

* * *

After Marcus had had breakfast with Sky, he retired to his study and started making fire-calls. He decided to call his old friend Rufus Scrimgeour, who was the Head Auror. He threw the Floo powder into the fireplace and spoke his name. He saw Rufus sitting behind his desk looking thoughtful.

"Rufus, old friend, what makes you look so grim?" Marcus asked.

"Marcus?"

"In the flesh." Marcus smirked.

"I haven't seen you in years. Where have you been? Come over, I have tea coming in a few minutes." Rufus said happy to see his old friend.

"Sorry, can't. Long story short is that I got myself an apprentice and have been travelling with him pretty much all around the world, but I'll tell you more about that later with better time. In fact I wanted to ask you if you'd do me a favor."

"What kind?"

"Information. I need a detailed report from a trial six years ago."

"Hmm… You've got me intrigued. Which one?"

"The Sirius Black case."

"Black's? That was just before they made me a Head. Why do you need it?"

"Can't tell you yet. Can I have it?"

"Sure, I'll send you a copy by dinner. So when are you going to come back from your leave of absence?"

"We shall see – Maybe in a few years… Anyway, thanks for the file."

"Don't mention it, but I'm curious of what you need it for. You must tell me over dinner sometime." Rufus said.

"Well, if everything goes well I'm sure you'll be the first one to know." Marcus said mysteriously and stopped the call. He made a few more calls to Aurors that had been in the scene when they caught Sirius but none of them could tell him anything new.

Sighing Marcus left his study and headed for the training area. He saw Sky down the lake meditating. He had finished his Animagus potion the day before and was now trying to find his inner animal. Marcus himself had done it during his training, with the help of his mentor Charlus Potter. His form was a silver wolf.

Marcus turned away from Sky and activated the training dummies. Over the years he had taken up a routine, in which he every day spent time keeping up his dueling skills in both magical and muggle. For two hours he fought the dummies restlessly until he saw out of the corner of his eye a large black figure moving fast towards him. Out of reflexes he turned around to face it and shot a spell towards it, which it avoided easily. Marcus had barely enough time to identify the creature for a panther, before he was tackled into the ground with the panther licking his face.

"What the hell…?!" Marcus started and shoved the panther off of him, before noticing that the panther had emerald green eyes. "Sky?" He asked incredulously.

The panther shifted into Sky, who was wiping tears of joy from his eyes. "Constant… vigilance wasn't it?" He asked between the laughs.

"You… How? How did you do that?" Marcus asked. "It takes years to become an Animagus."

"Apparently not. I just concentrated hard into one of my forms, after I received a vision from it and then I transformed." Sky said casually.

"You just transformed into an Animagus in less than a day and you say that 'I just concentrated hard'." Marcus said shaking his head in wonder. "Wait, did you just say _forms_?"

"Yes, I wondered when you would catch up. I have at least three more; a phoenix, a wolf and a snake." Sky said sounding excited.

Marcus just stared him for a long time in wonder before he collected himself.

"You can turn into a magical creature?"

"Yea, I guess. I haven't tried it yet."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Give it a go." Marcus said excited. He had never met anyone who had a magical creature as an Animagus form, but had read about it before.

He watched Sky close his eyes and in a few minutes there was a pure white phoenix in front of him. Marcus could do nothing but stare as Sky started stretching his wings and attempting to fly. It took him a few tries, but soon he was in the air, flying like he had born to it. _'Well, Sky has always loved flying, so it's no wonder he has an Animagus form that can fly.'_

Sky's phoenix Shadow flashed to the yard and joined Sky in the sky, clearly teaching him how to properly use the wings. Soon they were both diving towards the ground and pulling quickly up again. Marcus watched them chuckling to himself before returning to his study to see if Rufus had sent him the file yet.

He had, and Marcus started to read the file. The file contained only two papers; One detailing the capture of Sirius and the other, with information about him being the Potters' Secret-Keeper. There was nothing about the trial or interrogation. _'This can't be right' _Marcus thought. _'There must be something about the trial.'_

Marcus looked again at the first paper that contained the names of the Aurors that worked on the case. They were all veterans that had passed away, either in the field or due to some disease, except for one. A young Auror by the name of Fred Stephenson had worked on the case, and was still an active Auror. Marcus decided to go and meet with him, but first he had to see if Sky wanted to come along. He sent a house-elf to fetch Sky and changed into his Unspeakable robes. It was always good to make an impression when trying to get information and the Unspeakables were so unknown force that they gained respect –and fear – by just being there.

Just as he had changed his robes Sky entered the room.

"Are we going somewhere?"

"Yes, I'm going to meet an Auror that worked on Sirius' case. You can come along if you want."

"Wouldn't miss it." Sky said excitedly. "Wasn't there anything in the file that Scrimgeour gave you?"

"Only details of the capture, nothing of interrogation or trial. It's like he was shipped into Azkaban without questioning."

"What if the Auror doesn't know?"

"We will cross that bridge when it comes. You should change a bit of your looks. Many of the Aurors knew your father and may recognize you, even if you don't have classes anymore – You look too much alike."

Sky just smiled faintly, like he always did when his parents were mentioned, and changed his appearance. Now he looked taller and older; He had a brown hair and blue eyes.

"Here, change into these." Marcus said handing him his apprentice robes. "We need to get you your own before we do more public appearances, but for now these will do. Meet you in the apparition point."

Sky just nodded wordlessly looking a tad bit awkward, before going to his room to change. Sighing Marcus walked down to the apparition point. Sky really ought to learn to receive gifts without feeling uncomfortable.

It took several minutes to Sky to arrive and Marcus had already started to wonder where he had stayed.

"Sorry I took so long, but Dexter insisted in coming with us. He said that he was bored lying all day doing nothing exciting." Sky explained pointing the small snake wrapped around his left wrist.

Dexter was another familiar of Sky's, whom he had met when they were travelling in Africa. Dexter was a rare form of Black Mamba – he was a pitch black with a little tinge of blue – so many snake hunters wanted to catch him. Sky had stopped Dexter from getting captured by snake hunters and in the midst of all that they had noticed that he was a Parselmouth. Dexter had been intrigued by Sky's talent to speak to snakes, so he had decided to bond with Sky – though as the snake himself put it, he was bored of living in Africa and wanted a change of view.

Marcus just shook his head in amusement and apparated them to London. They appeared right in front of the visitor's entrance to the Ministry of magic, but Marcus had no intention using it. He put a notice-me-not charm on Sky and himself and opened the entrance for Unspeakables by tapping a few bricks in the wall. They pulled their hoods up before walking inside towards the elevator that was for Unspeakables only. Marcus led them through the familiar corridors and secret passages into the Auror Office. Marcus found quickly Fred Stephenson's room and knocked the door. They heard a faint voice asking them to enter and Marcus opened the door to a small office where a thirty, or so, year-old man was sitting behind his desk.

His demeanor changed at once from relaxed to wary when he noticed that his visitors were Unspeakables. The man was too young to be able to keep his cool when dealing with Unspeakables, unlike some veterans such as Rufus could.

"W-Why are you here?" he stuttered.

"You were part of the team that investigated the Sirius Black case six years ago, correct?" Marcus asked in a voice that could be read as intimidating by some – well most – people.

"Y-Yes."

"What happened to the reports of the trial and interrogations?"

"I-I d-don't know." Stephenson stuttered but Marcus could see right through him and knew that he was lying.

"Don't lie to me, Stephenson."

"I-I'm sorry, I can't tell you. He-he will fire me if I do. I have family to make living for."

"Who will fire you? Fudge?"

"Y-Yes."

"Don't worry about him, he won't know. Just tell me what you know. Where are the reports?"

"T-There aren't any." Stephenson whispered. "He wasn't given a trial or Veritaserum. The Minister said that he didn't deserve any and shipped him off to Azkaban. The Minister told us that if we ever uttered a word he would fire us and make sure no one would ever hire us again."

Marcus was silent for a moment before he asked:

"Is there anything else?"

"No, that's all I know."

"Good." Marcus said standing up and taking out his wand muttering:

" Obliviate!"

"What did you do that for?" Sky asked when they were out of the office.

"To protect him and his family – no one will ever know it was him we got the information." Marcus knew that Fudge wouldn't leave Stephenson alone until he had ruined his life, if he found out that it was him who leaked the information.

Sky just nodded silently in agreement.

"Come on, we need to go see Rufus and try to get Sirius a trial. That is the only way we can ever find out if he really killed Pettigrew and the muggles." Marcus said while leading them to the Head Auror's office. He waited a permission to enter and after receiving it they stepped inside.

Rufus had always been one of the 'tough guys' that never wavered while dealing with Unspeakables or anyone else for that matter, but you could still see the wariness in his yellowish eyes behind a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles, if you knew where to look.

Marcus let his hood down after Sky had closed the door and gestured for him to do the same. Marcus could see a faint relief in Rufus' eyes when he recognized him.

"Marcus, what brings you to the Ministry today? If this was just a simple visit between old friends you wouldn't have bothered to dress up – Unless I'm under questioning, of course?" Rufus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah, I had to stop by among your ranks earlier for some information… nothing to bother about."

"So, is it about the file I gave you?" Rufus asked. "And who's the lad?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. This is my apprentice Sky, Sky, Rufus Scrimgeour." He introduced.

"Nice to meet you, sir." Sky said casually, but Marcus could hear the slight wariness in his voice that he had every time he met a new adult. It was still hard for Sky to trust people right away, but at least he didn't cover up anymore.

"And you too." Rufus said. Marcus saw the speculating look on Rufus face that he always had when he met someone he didn't know.

"I want the Sirius Black's case reopened." Marcus said.

"What? What do you want that for? He was declared guilty and sent Azkaban six years ago, why would you want to reopen the case now?"

"Did you happen to look at the file before you sent it to me?"

"No, why? What was in it?"

"There are no records of a trial or interrogations at all. I just tracked down the one Auror alive, who was investigating the case and he told me that they shipped him straight through to Azkaban under Fudge's orders."

"That's an outrage! Guilty or not, Black is a Head of an Ancient and Noble House. How could they not have given him a change to go to trial?" Rufus asked livid. "They have broken the very first laws of our Ministry! I shall not let this go without throughout investigation. I don't care if he is a mass murderer or not, everyone deserves justice."

"Good, I was hoping you would say that." Marcus said smiling. "Now there is a slight change that Sirius did not kill the muggles and that it was all Pettigrew's plan." He continued and let Sky to tell Scrimgeour his theory.

"You've got a point there lad, but we need to get him a trial before we can prove anything. We'll have to get Amelia to help us so that we have even the slightest chance to succeed, and she won't be convinced by just a theory."

"What if we showed him the memory of the Potters switching the Secret-Keeper from Sirius to Pettigrew? I heard that the Bones were a close family with the Potters." Sky asked.

"It could work…" Rufus said thoughtfully. "But where would we get one?"

Sky looked at Marcus briefly, who nodded his approval with a proud look on his eyes, before morphing back to his real self, with the scar and all. _'He is starting to learn' _Marcus thought proudly.

"Merlin's beard, Marcus! You have Harry Potter as an apprentice." Rufus exclaimed.

Thankful for the privacy charm he had cast as they arrived, he just nodded.

"Correction, sir – Harry Potter is dead and has been for the past six years. My name is Sky." Sky said with a daring edge in his voice. He really hated to be called Harry Potter.

Rufus looked at Marcus who just gave him a look that said 'drop it or suffer consequences'. He cleared his throat and apologized for Sky.

"Now we can show the memory to convince Madam Bones, but we need to work on the sly as long as possible, without letting Fudge or Dumbledore know." Marcus said.

"Dumbledore? Why him? Wasn't he close with Black at a time?"

"He could've gotten Sirius a trial if he had wanted to, but instead he did nothing."

"Right, I'll floo to Amelia so that we can get this process started. Just be ready with the memory." Rufus said to Sky who was back in his disguise again. They had agreed before that Sky wouldn't reveal himself to anyone but Rufus, and even to him only if they had to. Marcus had already cast a charm on him that he could tell no one Sky's real identity, even under Veritaserum.

_'This is going to be a long day."_

* * *

Sky dropped on to his bed completely exhausted. It was half past two in the morning and Sky and Marcus had just arrived to the previous Potter Manor, where they planned to stay during Sirius trial.

They had spent the whole day in the Ministry planning how to get Sirius a trial. They had convinced Amelia Bones to help them and planned to take up the issue in the Wizengamot meeting the next day. They had counted enough votes for the trial to get through, after all three of them had called in favors from their allies and contacts in the Ministry, but Sky had written an article to the Daily Prophet that was to be released in the morning paper during the meeting under Marcus' reporter name Leo Marshall, just in case, since one never knew in politics when someone decided to turn their back on his ally.

Sky was brought out of his musing by his Familiar Shadow. She crooned at him reprovingly telling him to sleep. Sky just smiled briefly and stroked her feathers. She started singing quietly the familiar lullaby that she always sang when Sky couldn't sleep.

In seconds he was asleep.

The next morning Sky woke up at the normal time for his and Marcus' morning training. He was tense and nervous the whole time and couldn't get himself to relax. He knew that his nervousness now was nothing compared to what he would be before the actual trial. During their training he noticed that Marcus too was a little distracted.

The Wizengamot meeting began at eight and lasted somewhere between ten and eleven, depending on how much stuff they had to discuss. Rufus had said that they would leave the matter of getting Sirius a trial to the end, so that they could get it into action as soon as possible. He had promised to let them know the outcome of the voting as soon as the meeting ended.

Sky and Marcus finished their training and went to breakfast, but Sky couldn't eat. He picked his food and just stared to the distance seeing nothing.

"You should eat something, Sky." Marcus said after a while.

"I know, but I can't… I just keep thinking that if he's innocent… all those years he has spent with those foul creatures. Can he even be sane anymore?" Sky said shivering. He had run into Dementors while travelling in Iceland. He remembered all the bad things happened in his life and there were plenty of those. He remembered his parent's murder, all his beatings in the Dursleys and the explosion in the shack. Patronus charm had been the hardest spell for him to produce, but in the end with a lot of determination and help from Marcus, he had done it.

"It is true that most people who are in Azkaban have fallen into insanity after staying there few years, but there are those who have survived there. We can only hope that Sirius belongs to that latter one." Marcus said grimly. "Now eat something and then we go to the Ministry. They should be done with the meeting in a while."

Sky just nodded and forced his toast down his throat. They used the Floo to get straight to the Head Auror's office, where they had agreed to meet Rufus. They waited for a good fifteen minutes before Rufus came through the door, his face revealing nothing.

He gestured them to sit down before he spoke:

"We needed at least 26 members to agree giving Black his trial out of fifty. We got 42." Rufus said a small smile tucking his lips. "The members were outraged that Fudge hadn't given a Head of an Ancient and Noble House a proper trial, especially after we showed them the memory. Most of them didn't really care if he killed twelve muggles, they seemed to be more upset about his giving the Potters up for Voldemort, but since it turned out that he didn't betray them, most members were all for giving him a trial. His trial is scheduled to be at eleven tonight. It won't be public one with this short notice, but I think you can attend, if you use your Unspeakable status." Rufus said.

"Yes, I planned to do that already. Who is in charge of the trial?" Marcus asked.

"Madam Bones." Rufus said smirking. "You should've seen Dumbledore's face when we presented this, and when we said that we thought it wouldn't be appropriate for him to be in charge of the trial, when he was so close with Black in the past."

"You need to show me the memory in the pensive sometime." Marcus said matching Rufus' smirk. Sky made a mental note to ask Marcus, if he had something else against Dumbledore than just what he did to Sky.

"Well, I must leave to retrieve our prisoner now. I'll see you in the trial." Rufus said and left the office.

"Now what?" Sky asked.

"Now we wait." Marcus said.

"Argh… I hate waiting." Sky complained. "Can't we do something interesting while we wait?

"Well, I could teach you how to brew Wolfsbane…"

"Really? You would?" Sky asked excited. He loved brewing potions and it always distracted him from things he didn't want to think about. It was his habit to make variations of the potions and create faster ways of brewing them. Marcus hadn't let him brew the Wolfsbane before, even though he had wanted to, because it was way beyond NEWT level and very difficult to brew.

"Yes, I think you have enough practice with potions to try it." Marcus said. "Now let's go, it takes time to brew it."

* * *

Sky and Marcus spent the whole day brewing potions and Sky had managed to brew the Wolfsbane successfully. It was half past ten that they changed into their Unspeakable and Apprentice robes and Flooed to the Ministry. They walked to the court room in the dungeons of the lower levels and stepped in. No one really paid any attention to them since it wasn't uncommon for Unspeakables to attend the trials. Also Marcus had cast a brief notice-me-not charm on them just in case, since they needed to be inconspicuous. He wanted no one but Rufus and Amelia to know that they were there so that they could take Sirius with them if he was innocent, without much a fuss.

The court room was almost full when they entered; only Amelia, Dumbledore and Fudge were missing. Marcus and Sky walked over to Rufus and sat down behind him hidden by the shadows.

"Hello Rufus." Marcus said.

"Merlin Marcus, don't sneak up on me like that." Rufus jumped. "Where's Sky? I thought you were going to bring him too."

"What are you talking about? He's sitting next to me." Marcus said and turned to watch Sky. It was very difficult to see from the shadows before he leaned forward. _'How does he do that?' _Marcus thought.

"I'm here." Sky said as he leaned forward. Marcus was just about to ask him how he blended into the shadows so well, when Madam Bones who had entered the room called for attention.

"We have gathered here tonight 21th of November, 1987 to give Sirius Black the trial he should have had six years ago." She began and shot a dark glance towards Fudge. "The questioning shall happen with Veritaserum. Aurors bring in the prisoner."

The doors to the court rooms opened and two Aurors brought Sirius in. He was very pale and thin and his filthy hair hung above his elbows. His face was very gaunt and he looked almost like a corpse. There was no trace of the handsome young man Sky remembered from his childhood.

The Aurors put him into the interrogation chair and fed him the Veritaserum.

"What is your full name?" Madam Bones asked.

"Sirius Orion Black" Sirius said in a dull, very raspy voice.

"Were you James and Lily Potter's Secret-Keeper?"

"No, we switched to Peter Pettigrew few days before Halloween."

"Did you kill Peter Pettigrew?"

"No I didn't, though it wasn't for lack of trying. Pettigrew fooled me and framed me. He blew up the street with some unknown spell, cut off his forefinger; hit me with a cheering charm and transformed into his rat Animagus disappearing to the drain."

"Why didn't you get a trial?"

"I tried, but Fudge and Barty Crouch decided that I was guilty without any questioning and sent me to Azkaban."

"I call the Wizengamot to vote." Madam Bones said.

The result was 47 to innocent and 0 to guilty. Three members were absent.

"I declare Sirius Orion Black cleared of all charges. The Ministry offers Mr. Black their sincerest apologies and 1 million galleons compensation for his suffering." Madam Bones said and concluded the trial.

Sirius was freed from his chains and given the antidote to Veritaserum and the Aurors escorted him out of the room. Marcus changed a few words with Rufus and they agreed to bring Sirius to Rufus' office, so that Marcus and Sky could take him with them, without anyone noticing. He could already see Dumbledore moving towards the exit clearly attempting to get to Sirius.

Marcus and Sky left the courtroom passing quickly all the reporters outside the room and headed for the Head Auror's office. They had been there only for a few minutes when Rufus entered supporting Sirius with Auror Emmett Wilmond, who also was an old friend of Marcus'.

Marcus could see that Sirius was not really in his senses yet, but wasn't nearly as bad as Marcus had imagined. He and Sky had agreed in the way to Rufus' office that it was best if they took him to the House of Phoenix and asked help from the phoenixes.

"Come on Sky, let's take him to Phoenix." Marcus said and took a hold of Sirius. Sky came to Sirius' other side and took a hold of the Portkey Marcus had in his hand.

Marcus nodded to Emmett and Rufus as thanks and said: "See you, when I see you", before activating the Portkey.

They arrived in the House of Phoenix and Sky ran into the house to call for the phoenixes, while Marcus carried Sirius, who had passed out during the Portkey-ride, inside. He laid him down in one of the guestrooms and cast multiple cleaning charms on him. Sky came into the room after calling the phoenixes who flashed there at the same time. They started singing songs that they had sung to Sky too during his healing. The songs gave him strength and helped to face difficult memories, letting the wounds to heal.

The phoenixes stayed with Sirius for three days before announced that they had done all they could and that Sirius should wake up in a day. Sky had spent almost all his time with Sirius taking care of him, only coming out to their training sessions and to get some food. He often even slept there.

Marcus knew that Sky was having an inner battle with himself, how to feel about Sirius. He knew that he was worried about him and that it was now important to take care of him, but when he woke up; Sky would probably act very differently with him. He couldn't sort out his feelings and would probably end up being hostile towards Sirius, at least at first. Marcus knew that Sky could remember Sirius from his childhood and that that would help him to accept Sirius easier than he had done with Marcus, but it would still take a while. Sky would first have to deal with his hatred and anger towards him.

_'They'll both just need some time.'_

* * *

Sirius woke up feeling like he had been sleeping for weeks. It took him a moment to recall where he was. He felt a burst of happiness inside of him as he realized he was no long in his small cell in Azkaban and faintly remembered that he had been given a trial and declared innocent. Not sure if he was dreaming or not, he got out of his bed and started looking around the place he had been brought. The few times he had woken up the place had been full of phoenixes, but he wasn't sure if they had been real or just his imagination.

He was just entering the library when he heard a faint sound coming from the room next to it. He opened the door and saw a huge training room, where a young boy – maybe seventeen or eighteen-year-old – with light brown hair and dark brown eyes, was fighting conjured training dummies. Sirius had never seen anyone as fast and skilled as the boy was. He fought against twenty dummies in an incredible speed, using some kinds of muggle material arts style and a katana. The dummies seemed to be programmed to fight even in a higher level than the Aurors used in their training. He showed no sign that he had seen Sirius even when he sat down meditating, his back towards the door, after his training. Sirius was just about to leave when the boy spoke:

"What were the last words you said to Harry Potter?"

The question hit him like a pile of rocks. He remembered all too well the last time he had seen his godson, and how he had regretted his decision to let Hagrid take Harry every day in Azkaban.

"I…I told him that I loved him and promised to come back for him after killing the traitor." Sirius answered tears flowing in his eyes. He felt like he had failed Harry. He had promised that he would come back and raise him like his own. He collected himself and asked:

"Do you know where Harry is? Where did Dumbledore take him? I need to make sure they're treating him fine."

"The Dursleys."

"WHAT?! He…He…That old coot took him to those magic-hating muggles?! Everyone knows how much Petunia hated Lily." Sirius said furiously, he was mad at Dumbledore for taking Harry to those muggles and mad at himself for going after that rat.

"Where is Harry? Where do they live? I need to go get him."

"It's too late for that, Sirius."

"What do you mean? Why do you say that?"

The boy got up of the floor and walked right in front of Sirius. While walking his hair, body and features started morphing and shrinking and by the time he stopped he was only half of his height and his hair had turned raven black. The boy looked straight into Sirius' eyes with his accusing emerald green eyes and said:

"Because Harry Potter is dead."

* * *

**A/N: Well, here it is, a bit longer chapter than the last one. I hope you enjoyed. Please review and tell me your thoughts on the chapter and the story overall. Any suggestions?**

**- Dalmin**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thank you so much for reviews! Here's the fifth chapter of Sky. We have Sky throwing a temper tantrum of sorts and Marcus telling Sirius of Sky's past, plus some of his thoughts and feelings of the time he found him. It's a bit angsty at times, but there are happy moments too. Hope you like it. :)**

**Also thank you for reviewer** _**dreamjanus**___**for pointing out my spelling error. Just to make it clear, Sky is learning ****_martial arts_**** and not material arts as I had accidently written. I have tried to correct this mistake in the future chapters, but it is possible that I have missed it somewhere, but I hope it doesn't bother you too much. :)**

**Disclaimer: Everything you recognize from Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling**

_"Parsssseltongue"_

_"Japanese"_

_'Thoughts'_

* * *

Sirius was in a state of shock. He didn't know what exactly had just happened. He knew that he had just met his godson after six years, but he had calmly stated to him that he was dead and then walked away.

"Don't worry about him, Sirius. He'll be fine after a few days. Just call him Sky instead of Harry. He doesn't like being called Harry." A voice said from behind him.

Sirius whirled around and stared at the man ten years his senior.

"Marcus?"

"Hello, Sirius."

"I – How – Why – What – What's wrong with Harry?" Sirius asked. He didn't have a clue what was going on. "He is Harry, right?"

"Yes he is, and it's a long story to be told while standing in the middle of a corridor. Let's have a seat in the living room and I'll tell you all that has happened. Would you like to have some tea?"

"Yea, sure." Sirius said baffled while following Marcus to the living room. He sat down in one of the armchairs watching Marcus expectantly. Marcus sat down in the chair opposite from him and cleared his throat before starting to speak.

"I know that you met Hagrid outside the Potters' house that night Lily and James died and that he told you that he would take Harry to Dumbledore. Well he did, but Dumbledore took the matters into his own hands and took Harry to the Dursleys, while ignoring James and Lily's will – in which they stated clearly that he would under no circumstances to be taken to the Dursleys and that you, Alice or I would be named his guardian if you weren't available – completely in the process. So Dumbledore left Harry with the Dursleys knowing that they hated all that had something to do with magic.

"Harry lived with them for four years, locked up in a small cupboard, without knowing even his name before he was thrown out to the streets of London, beaten to half-dead. Fortunately he was found by three street kids who took him in and took care of his wounds. Now if it wasn't for his powerful healing magic he wouldn't be alive. The street kids gave Harry his new name Sky, which is now his official name. He lived with them roughly a year before someone cast a Fiendfyre to the shack they were living in. Sky was the only survivor." Marcus said before pausing to sip his tea.

"How did he come to you?" Sirius asked in voice barely above whisper.

"I was there when the shack burst into flames. I don't know if you heard before you went to Azkaban that my wife and daughter died, just a few days before Voldemort fell. Godric's Hollow was the last case I was on before I took my leave of absence." Marcus said and Sirius shook his head sadly – he hadn't known.

"It was the anniversary of my wife's and daughter's death, the day I found Sky. The shack was close to the cemetery where they were buried and I was just coming from visiting them, when I heard someone casting the Fiendfyre. I don't know if it was Sky's magic that led me on or something else, but I went to the shack and put out the fire. There were burned corpses of the street kids around the shack and I didn't expect anyone to have survived, but then I saw Sky, completely unaffected by the fire, but unconscious.

"I didn't recognize him as Harry until after I had brought him to my home away from the prying muggles that were venturing to the shack, and was cleaning him." Marcus said pausing for a moment before continuing with a voice full of emotion. Sirius could tell that he had never spoken from this to anyone.

"You don't know what it was like Sirius. He looked so much like his parents, but was completely different. He was pale, skinny, his skin full of scars from all the beatings he had received at the Dursleys. He was so thin that he looked like he had never eaten in his life. But the eyes were the thing that frightened me the most. Identical to his mother's, but there was no trace of the gentle and loving look Lily always had in her eyes, or the happiness his eyes held when he was a baby. It was all replaced by fear and distrust like he was expecting to get hit by any moment, but behind all that was maturity that not even most adults carry with them.

"He has been through so much in his six years of life, Sirius – way too much. I tried to tell him for a long time that I wouldn't hurt him and that he would be safe with me, but nothing worked. He just pulled back more and more after every attempt. In the end I had to use Legilimency on him to find out why he was acting like that. His mind was a complete chaos. The memories and emotions were all tangled up together and there were multiple blocks in his memories and magic. The magical signature was Dumbledore's. He had bonded Harry's magic before placing him with the Dursleys. It took me some time, but finally I found his unconsciousness that Dumbledore had chained to a mind pillar. He told me what had happened and asked me to bring him into this house and get help from the phoenixes in breaking the webs. I brought him here, but it took two months for us to get started with his healing process."

"Why?" Sirius asked dreading the answer, but he had to know.

"Due to multiple different things; what you have to understand is that Sky knew nothing about the magical world, before I told him about it. I tried to explain him things about the magical world and his parents, but it's not something you can just accept one day. Also he couldn't remember the explosion in the shack and I had to tell him about the death of the only real family he knew. He spent the two months grieving and getting used to his new situation and trying to learn to trust me at least in some level, so that I could teach him. One day, he just came to me and said that he was ready to start his training. I don't know where he got his new determination, but all his blocks were gone after four months and he was at the level of a first-year student going to Hogwarts, in his magical training.

"Now after two years of living together, which includes the time we spent in the past via time turner, he has learned to trust me and act normally when he meets a new adult, though you can still see that slight wariness in his eyes if you know what you're looking for." Marcus finished.

They sat a long time in silence, Sirius pondering all that he had learned before he spoke his voice filled with pain and regret.

"I should've never gone after Pettigrew. I should've just taken Harry and raise him somewhere in peace. It's my fault he's had to suffer so much."

"You can't take all the blame to yourself Sirius, if I had stayed in the Ministry I could've gotten you a trial and…" Marcus started, but was interrupted by a furious voice from the door to the living room.

"What if, what if, what if… Is that all you can say? You dwell in the past thinking of all the possible outcomes of things that happened anyway. Maybe I'll join your 'how to blame myself today' –club and start blaming myself about all the things that have happened in my life. What if I had just let myself die when I got abandoned to the streets of London? Fox, Dora and Blake would all be alive living their lives. Blake would have married Fox like he planned to and he would've done all he could to get out of the street life. And they would have lived happily ever after. What if I had never been born? My parents would be still alive and you would have never gone to Azkaban. What if Shadow hadn't stopped me from committing suicide like I planned to when Marcus told me that everyone important to me was dead? Is this what you want to do? Dwell in the past instead of moving on and looking what's around you? You're both just so fucking pathetic. And to think you're the adults here." Sky cried before stalking off.

"He's right... We are pathetic" Marcus said after a while. "We should stop blaming ourselves about the things we can do nothing about anymore and focus on the things we can." He continued while standing up and laying an arm on Sirius shoulder.

"Do you see now what I mean by saying that he's more mature than most adults?" Marcus said chuckling lightly. "Don't worry, you'll get used to him in time and learn to read him better. Now get some rest, I'll go and see if Sky has calmed down enough already." He said before leaving Sirius alone with his thoughts.

* * *

Sky was sitting in his favorite spot under a huge tree. He had the knife that Blake had given him the night he died, in his hands and he was watching it glitter in the sunlight.

He was amazed by his own outburst. He had never done it before, and found that he felt much lighter after doing it. He was just so angry and scared. He didn't know how to be around Sirius. He remembered him from the time his parents were still alive and he had loved him, but then he had hated him when he thought that he had betrayed his parents. Now he didn't know what he felt. It was all just so confusing. Partly he was angry at Sirius for going after the rat and leaving him with Hagrid, and partly afraid that if he allowed Sirius in his life he would die like all the others who were dear to him. Or that he would decide that he wasn't worth loving and leave.

_"I can sssmell fear in you." _Dexter hissed from his sleeve. _"What iss wrong?"_

_"I don't know how to be around Ssiriusss." _Sky hissed back. _"I'm afraid that he will leave me if I let him near me."_ He was glad about his Parseltongue gift, no matter how dark other wizards and witches thought of it. If he didn't have it, he would have never met Dexter.

_"He ssmellss like a dog. Dogsss are loyal creaturesss. And if he doesss leave you, I'll bite him in the arssse." _Dexter said smugly curling around Sky's hand to be petted.

Sky couldn't help but laugh at the snake's antics and stroked his head. Dexter was a magical version of the Black Mamba. He could change his length and color how he pleased. He was very intelligent for a snake, but also proud. He never admitted if he was lonely, like the time when Sky found him. He just claimed that he was bored, when he wanted attention.

"What did he say, that's so funny?" a voice asked from behind him.

"He said that he would bite Sirius in the arse if he ever hurt me." Sky said without turning around. He had known it was Marcus the moment he stepped outside – he could recognize his magic.

"Remind me to never anger that snake of yours" Marcus said shivering, but smiling nevertheless.

They sat in silence for a moment before Marcus spoke.

"I'm sorry for falling into distress… Sometimes reminiscing the past just gets in to me. There are still so many ghosts in the past." He said quietly. "Luckily I have you to pull me out of depression if I ever fall again." He continued, smiling.

Sky could feel the love and fondness in his words, and smiled too. He was glad he had Marcus to count on. They kept each other from falling, and helped continuing to live.

"Did you really plan to take your own life?" Marcus asked turning to look at Sky.

"Yes."

"What stopped you?"

Sky was quiet for a while pondering whether to answer or not, but in the end decided to trust Marcus.

"Shadow… She brought this knife for me and reminded me of a promise I made." Sky began. "The night they died, we were celebrating my birthday. It had been a full year since they found me and I couldn't remember my real birthday, so they decided to make that day my birthday. I didn't want to, because I had never had a birthday, but they insisted. It was the happiest day of my life, until the night." He continued. He could feel silent tears running down his cheeks, but didn't care – He had to say it out loud.

"Blake pulled me aside at sunset and we watched it together from the hill next to the cemetery. He gave me this knife and told me to keep it as a symbol of forgiveness and life. He told me of his plan to let his past go and focus on the future. He told me that if I ever got the chance to leave the streets and go see the world, I should take it. He told me to let go all the bitterness and hatred, so that I wouldn't end up like him, living in the past and trusting barely anyone. Blake made me promise that I wouldn't dwell in the past and would always keep on living."

Sky could feel Marcus pulling him into hug and for the first time he hugged him back. They sat like that for a long time before Sky let go of Marcus.

"Can I see that knife?" Marcus asked after a while.

Sky handed it to him and he looked at it for a long time looking thoughtful. Sky was just about to ask him what he was thinking, when he spoke.

"Do you know what this knife is?"

"Blake said it was a suicide knife. His parents gave it to him when he got disowned, but he never used it. Why?"

"This knife has the crest of an old pureblood family, the Mallorys. Every pureblood family has a crest, and knives like this with the family crest carved on it were usually given to the Squibs born into the family." Marcus said.

"And you think that Blake was a Squib?"

"It is possible."

"How can they just kick their kids out of the house with a knife and tell them to kill themselves, just because they can't do magic? " Sky wondered aloud. "It's just cruel."

"Yes, it is, and that's where Voldemort gets his followers. The Mallorys were in Voldemort's inner circle during the First War and went to Azkaban for him."

"When do you think he's coming back? Voldemort, I mean."

"I don't know. He could come back at any time; tomorrow, in two years' time, in ten years or never. It's impossible to know."

Sky sat in silence pondering what it would be like when Voldemort came back, but couldn't really imagine it. In the end he decided to concentrate on the near future and asked:

"So are we going to Japan now that we have gotten Sirius out of Azkaban?"

"Of course! Can't keep Yuki miss you for too long, can we?" Marcus teased.

"We are friends! Nothing more." Sky said annoyed. Yuki was a Japanese girl whom they had met the first time they had been in Japan. She was an orphan muggle, who lived in a monastery with monks that had taught Sky more martial arts. Sky had saved her life from a tiger once when they were visiting there and she had started to worship him since then. The last time they met she had kissed Sky in the cheek and Marcus had teased him mercilessly about it.

"If, you say so. Now come on, let's go tell Sirius to start packing. And don't bite his head off every time he calls you Harry, it's not easy for him either."

"Fine, I'll try."

* * *

Marcus watched Sky out of the corner of his eye as they walked up the road to the Japanese monastery. He had a serene look on his face and looked more at peace than ever before. Marcus thought that his outburst the day before and talking about the death of his second family had been good for him. The hug that he had given to Marcus was a clear sign of him being on his way to heal from the traumas of his past. Marcus was glad that he had showed affection and opened up to him.

Due to his promise to Marcus, Sky had refrained from snapping at Sirius every time he called him Harry and instead scowled at him. Sirius was still recovering from his years in Azkaban and trying to absorb the world he hadn't been in six years. Marcus thought that Japan would be a good place to Sirius to recover, because of its peaceful nature, so he and Sky had talked him to coming with them.

At the moment Sirius was walking a few meters behind them taking in all the views that showed from the mountain the monastery was built. _'It must be a great feeling to see the beauty of this country after spending six years staring at the walls of his cell.' _Marcus thought.

Suddenly a young seven-year-old girl came running down the hill and lunged herself at Sky knocking both of them down.

_"Sky! You're here at last! What took you so long?"_ Yuki chattered in quick Japanese, while Marcus helped them up of the ground. Sky gave Marcus a look that said 'not a word', before answering.

_"Some urgent business came up in England and we had to go there." _Sky answered in perfect Japanese.

Marcus wished he had a camera with him when he saw Sirius face when he heard Sky speaking fluent Japanese.

_"What kind of business?" _Yuki asked while walking with Sky towards the monastery. Marcus doubted she even realized that he and Sirius were there too. She was always like that when Sky was in the same room with her. Marcus thought it had something to do with the fact that Sky had saved her from a tiger the first time they met.

_"We found out that my godfather was put wrongly in prison and we had to free him." _ Sky said before turning around. "Sirius, this is my friend Yuki. _Yuki this is my godfather Sirius Black."_

"It is nice to meet you Sirius Black." Yuki said in broken English. Sky had tried to teach her English every time they met, but she knew only few words.

_"It is nice to meet you too, Yuki" _Sirius answered in Japanese.

_"You speak Japanese?" _She asked excited.

_"Yes, I learned it when I was young with H-Sky's father."_

_"That's cool. Well, come on Master Katsumoto is waiting. He is eager to see if you have kept up your skills, Sky." _Yuki said happily, before running to the monastery with Sky.

"She's quite… impulsive." Sirius said coming to the side of Marcus.

"Yes, she is." He agreed. "But you'll get used to her."

"So how long are we going to be here?"

"As long as it takes for Sky to complete his training." Marcus said.

"What do they teach him?"

"Japanese martial arts. Sky has to complete one more level and then he can be considered a Master."

"And why does he learn all this? I saw him train yesterday and he is way beyond even the Auror training. How can he be that good? He's only seven for Merlin's sake. And where did he learn Japanese?" Sirius asked clearly not able to accept the fact that Sky wasn't a normal child.

"He is not a normal child, Sirius." Marcus stated calmly. He didn't know how get Sirius accept that and he probably wouldn't be able to do it. Only time would let him accept it. "Sky's a prodigy for a kid his age. He learns things ten times faster than normal kids, which is partly due to his photographic memory and his will to learn. What you need to understand is that after a less than a two years of studying, he is ready to take his OWLs and NEWTs at any time and all that while training to be an Unspeakable."

"You – You are training him to be an Unspeakable?" Sirius asked his eyes wide.

"Yes, after I taught him how to master his magic I gave him an offer to complete the Unspeakable training and become an agent if he wanted to. He considered it a few days and accepted."

"How can you train a six-year-old kid to an agent? What about Hogwarts?"

Marcus was just about to answer, when Sky stepped out of the shadows of the monastery. _'How does he do that, sneaking upon us? I should be able to sense him. He did the same thing in Sirius trial." _Marcus made a mental note to discuss that with Sky.

"Did you listen to anything Marcus just said?" Sky asked Sirius. "I'm a lord-level wizard and I'll be writing my OWLs and NEWTs in few years' time. I won't be going to Hogwarts. I knew what I was giving up when I took Marcus' offer, but my will to learn is too great for me to just go to Hogwarts and learn the pace other kids do. This training is something I wanted to do." He finished. "And to be honest, I don't think I could spent seven years with Dumbledore without killing him."

After saying that, Sky went back inside to the monastery.

"So there you have it, Sirius. You can't change him, so you need to accept him as he is. Don't try to be a parent to him; I don't think he could handle that at the moment. Just be the cool godfather to him, to whom he can go to if he needs to speak to someone or just have fun with. Teach him pranking; tell him stories of your time at Hogwarts and all the quarrels between his parents. Just be yourself and let him be who he is and you'll be fine." Marcus said. "I know there will be things that will amaze and overwhelm you, but that's what you get with living with a prodigy." Marcus said. "Besides, you have the advantage that he remembers you from his childhood, I didn't."

"Fine, you're right. It's just a lot to take in. I still see him as a little baby he was." Sirius said.

"I know, I did that too in the beginning, but you'll get over it once you get to know him better." Marcus laughed.

"Is there any other shocking facts of Sky?" Sirius asked though he looked like he didn't want to know.

"Well, you know about the photographic memory, metamorphmagus abilities and his healing ability… Yea, there is quite a few… Shall I tell you or would you like to find out on your own?" Marcus asked smirking.

"Just tell me."

"Well, for one he can speak twenty different languages including Mermish and Gobbledygook. He completed his Animagus transformation in less than a day after taking the potion and has four forms, of which one is a phoenix. He's also a Parselmouth. He has Dexter, a magical version of the Black Mamba as his second familiar. You know Black Mambas, right? –The fastest snakes in the world, deadly poisonous? By the way Sky told me that Dexter had threatened to bite you in the arse if you ever hurt Sky… Just thought you ought to know…" Marcus said casually, though inside he was laughing. _'It's time for payback for all the times he and James pranked me.' _He thought.

"Are you feeling well, Sirius? You look a bit pale… Maybe we should take you inside." He said innocently and took a frozen Sirius inside.

"Marcus, what's wrong with Sirius?" Sky asked as they entered.

Marcus bowed his greetings to Master Katsumoto, before answering.

"I don't know what came over him. He wanted to know about all the possibly shocking abilities you have, so I told him. I was just telling him about Dexter and how he had said that he would bite him if he ever hurt you, when he went like this." Marcus said continuing the use of his innocent tone.

"And you failed to mention that Dexter would never bite someone I didn't want him to?" Sky asked laughing.

"Must have slipped my mind."

Sky just rolled his eyes and started shaking Sirius awake.

"Sirius?"

"Show him the snake, and he'll wake up." Katsumoto said amused.

Sky took Dexter out of his sleeve and held him in front of Sirius, who came out of his trance screaming like a little girl before backing away from it.

"Sirius, calm down!" Sky said laughing along with the others.

"Not funny! Marcus how could you do that to me? You know I'm terrified of snakes."

"Payback for all the pranks I have suffered."

"Fine, but now we're quits."

"Deal, and no more pranks on me." Marcus said and held out his hand.

"Fine." Sirius said and shook it.

_'And tomorrow I'll probably wake up with a pink hair…' _Marcus thought smiling faintly.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review and tell me what you think. Suggestions to improve the story are always welcome.**

**- Dalnim**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Thanks for reviews. Here we have the sixth chapter of Sky. I hope you like it.**

**Someone asked me about pairings, but I'm not going to say anything yet, though I'm sorry to say that Yuki is only a passing character at the moment.**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling**

_'thoughts'_

* * *

They had been in the monastery roughly for a month and Sirius had had a lot of time to think about his past and face his fears and traumas that came with it. He had gotten a lot of help from the monks and Sky and Marcus, and had pretty much recovered from his time in Azkaban, though sometimes he still had nightmares about it.

Sirius had also spent a lot of time getting to know Sky and watching him train. He was still a bit overwhelmed about just how advanced Sky really was and with all his abilities – especially with Parseltongue, but after hearing Sky speak it so often, he had almost gotten used to it. He had even petted Dexter once.

Marcus had told him about his years with Sky in more detail over the weeks and Sirius could now understand Sky a little better. They had also talked about the past and Sirius felt a little better after he had gotten to speak to someone about the things in his mind.

Now as he watched the full moon rise, he thought about his only living Marauder friend – Remus. Marcus had told him that he didn't know where Remus was and that he hadn't tried to contact him, because he didn't know if his loyalty to Dumbledore had changed. Marcus hadn't wanted to risk Dumbledore finding out about him having Harry – Sky, and Sirius could understand that.

Sirius, Marcus and Sky were planning to leave the monastery in a few days, as Sky had completed his last level and was now considered Master of Japanese martial arts and Sirius planned to find Remus and meet with him. He was worried about how Remus had coped with losing all his friends – his family – and hoped that he had heard about Sirius' innocence regarding everything.

Sirius stared at the full moon and remembered all the times he had spent with Remus in his Animagus form, when Remus transformed into wolf. He felt a pang of sadness and regret when he thought about Remus transforming alone all those years.

"You're thinking of uncle Moony, aren't you?" Sky asked coming to sit with him on the grass.

"Yes." Sky often called Remus uncle Moony, like he did when he was little. He had even called him uncle Padfoot a few times when he had gotten to use to Sirius being around.

"Don't worry Sirius, we'll find him and bring him back with us." Sky said reassuringly.

"Yeah, I know. I was just thinking about him being alone in full moon."

"Let's call him. Maybe he will hear us, wherever he is." Sky said excitedly. Sirius could see the maturity disappear and Sky seem like a normal seven-year-old whenever he was excited about something.

"What do you mean call him?" Sirius asked.

"By howling, you know, like wolfs. I read from one book that werewolves could hear their pack's calling in full moon no matter where they were. We are his family – his pack, so we could turn into our Animagus forms and call him." Sky explained and turned into his wolf form. He was a black cub with a silver stripes in his back.

"And how do you expect to howl, when you're just a cub?" Sirius asked. "Only adult wolves can howl."

Sky just glared at him, which made him look a very cute puppy, before he started to grow. In few seconds a huge wolf stood in front of Sirius giving him a look that clearly said: 'Beat that'.

"Fair enough." Sirius said before transforming into a big black dog, which looked like a grim.

Sirius nudged Sky to the side and gave him a look that said 'So how are we going to do this?'

Sky just rolled his eyes and started howling. Sirius joined in and soon even Marcus came to join them. They howled long to the night wishing for their message to reach the missing member of their pack.

* * *

Remus Lupin often wondered why he kept on living. Six years ago he had lost everything he had held dear. James, Lily and Peter were all dead and Sirius – Sirius had betrayed them. And little Harry was off to live with muggles. Dumbledore had told him that the Dursleys were the best choice for Harry to go live with and that he wasn't to know about the wizarding world before he was ten-years-old.

Remus had left England in hopes for a better life, though he knew there was no such thing for werewolves, and travelled to France. Werewolves were monsters who apparently didn't deserve to be loved or even treated as people.

He had lived in the muggle world working in multiple different part-time jobs, trying to gather enough money to live and buy the Wolfsbane potion every month. He rarely succeeded. Wolfsbane potion was only a few years old development and still extremely expensive. Remus was lucky to afford to buy it even few times a year.

Tonight was one of those full moons that he hadn't been able to buy the potion. He felt the moon reach out to him even before it was night and once again he wondered why he was still living. What was there to live for? And the answer came to him right away, like always: Harry. He couldn't let Harry to grow up without knowing his parents and Remus was the only one alive, who would tell him about them.

Remus planned to move back to England around the time he would be going to Hogwarts and seek him out. But that was still years away and he had to concentrate on surviving the next few years.

He cast multiple locking charms on his little cottage in the woods and waited for the moon to rise. The transformation was always painful. It felt like someone was dislocating his limbs and stabbing him with multiple knives. And now, without the Wolfsbane potion, he couldn't even control his own actions.

The wolf inside of him took control and tried to break out of the house, but it couldn't break the charms on the house and started biting himself instead. And Remus could do nothing about it.

Suddenly the wolf side of him calmed down, stilling – listening. He could hear howling coming from afar carried by the wind.

_His pack was calling him._

* * *

Sky, Marcus and Sirius left the monastery on Christmas Eve. They had decided to spend Christmas in England, in the previous Potter Manor, which was now called the Lux Manerium. Marcus had thought that their best change to find out some clue of Remus whereabouts was London, so there they were.

Sky and Sirius had left to do some Christmas shopping, leaving Marcus to decorate the house with the Christmas decorations they had found in the attic. He had just finished when Sky and Sirius returned with Sky carrying multiple bags of food and stuff and Sirius a huge Christmas tree.

"Where did you found that tree, Sirius?" Marcus asked staring at the huge tree that barely could fit through the door.

"From the woods, that surrounds the house. I remembered Charlus always getting a Christmas tree from there so we went to get one."

"Too bad you couldn't get a bigger one; I think that's too small, you can barely see it." Marcus said sarcastically.

"Hey, don't blame me! It was H-Sky who chose it." Sirius defended.

Marcus looked at Sky pointedly, who was laughing at Sirius who was almost drowning under the huge tree. Marcus just shook his head and left to the kitchen to prepare a meal to them as Sky had given the house-elves, who took care of the manor, a day-off. Marcus had once during their time in the monastery made the mistake of letting Sirius and Sky to prepare them a meal and had come to a conclusion: Never again. While Sky was a decent cook, he rarely made their food, since Marcus liked cooking and usually wanted to do it, but when he put Sky with Sirius to the kitchen it equals disaster. Sirius had managed to burn down the food he was preparing and Sky mixed up salt with sugar. In the end they had started a food fight and messed up the whole kitchen.

Marcus had given them a severe talking-to and tried to find out which one of them started the fight, but both of the of course blamed the other. Marcus had tried to punish them for messing up his sanctuary, but hadn't been able to resist the puppy eyes Sky gave him in his panther's cub form and Sirius in his dog form. In the end he had let them go after forcing them to clean up the mess and giving them a life-long ban to the kitchen. _'I am living with two children; one who really is a child and the other who never grew up.'_

Nonetheless Marcus had been happy to see Sky acting like a child, and having fun doing other things than just training and studying – even if it was messing up his sanctuary.

At dinner they discussed their plans for Christmas and finding Remus.

"I would like to visit Godric's Hollow and Saint Mary's." Sky said. Saint Mary's was the cemetery where Marcus' wife and daughter were buried and also a place where Sky had kept a memorial to Fox, Blake and Dora.

Marcus had wondered when he would want to visit his parents' graves and his second family's. The previous Christmases they had been out of the country and not able to visit them, but now that they were here, Marcus knew that he would want to go there.

"Of course. It's about time you visited the place you were born." Marcus said smiling lightly. "When do you want to go?"

"Can we go tonight? I would like to spend the Christmas Day just here."

"Sure. Are you coming with us Sirius?"

"Yes, I am."

They finished their food in comfortable silence and then apparated to Godric's Hollow. They walked to the house first, which looked just like it had in that Halloween after the fall of Voldemort.

"Look, they have put up a statue of Lily and James and you." Sirius said to Sky.

Sky just stared at the monument lost in his thoughts. After a while he turned around and started walking towards the graveyard. Sirius put a hand on his shoulder and walked with him, following Marcus, who led them towards the grave. He had only once visited their grave, and that had been in their funeral.

The graveyard was empty except for one person that came up from the direction Lily and James' graves were, but Marcus didn't pay any attention to the hooded man. At least not until he heard Sky's voice.

"Moony?"

* * *

Sky walked lost in his thoughts after Sirius, and Marcus who was leading them to his parent's graves. He had a déjà vu moment when he saw the house he was born into. Once again he could remember the last moments of his parents, but for the first time he could remember it without the feeling of loss and sorrow. He felt like he had finally accepted their deaths and it was a wonderful feeling.

Sky was brought back to reality, when he almost pumped into a hooded man, who walked towards them. Sky got a glimpse of the man's face and recognized him immediately.

"Moony?" He blurted out, before he could stop himself. _'He won't recognize you, when you look like that, you idiot." _He told himself as the man whirled around a wand in his hand.

Sky noticed Remus eying him and Marcus before he noticed Sirius.

"Black." Remus growled. "How did you get out of Azkaban? Used some tricks Voldemort taught you? And you dare to come here…" Remus spat angrily. Sky could see why one wouldn't want to anger a werewolf.

"Remus, calm down. I'm innoce…" Sirius started before Remus cast a Furnunculus at him. Sky sent a wandless shield in front of Sirius that swallowed the curse and stepped between them. He disarmed Remus and let his disguise drop.

"Calm down Moony, or I won't give you your wand back." He said staring at Remus, Remus who stared him back totally frozen. "Sirius didn't betray my parents nor killed the muggles; it was all Wormtail's doing. He framed Sirius and disappeared. Now, I know he is pretty annoying sometimes, but I can't let you curse him, because I need someone to blame when I prank Marcus." Sky said smirking as Sirius protested from behind him. _'That should wake him from his trance.'_

"Harry?"

"In the flesh" Sky said and tossed Remus his wand back.

"What- How? Dumbledore said you were living with your relatives."

"Haven't been for three years. Sirius can take you home and tell you the story, so you can reconcile with him and clean up the bad blood between you, but you need to promise me you won't curse him. I want to visit my parents and Saint Mary's." He said and after giving Remus a quick hug, morphed back to his disguise, walking with Marcus to his parents' graves. He could hear Sirius muttering something about him letting Remus call him Harry while he just glares at him every time he does, as he walked past him.

"Do you think they'll be fine?" Marcus asked him.

"Don't worry, they will." Sky said. _'It's better if they have some time alone to speak things through.'_

* * *

Remus stared after Harry, who walked towards his parents' graves with a man that looked vaguely familiar to Remus. He turned towards Sirius who was watching him warily.

"What just happened?" He asked.

"Harry just told you that I am innocent and forbid you of cursing me, because he needs someone to blame at when he pranks Marcus." Sirius told him.

Remus stared at him disbelieving.

"You think you got it bad?" Sirius asked. "The first time I met him he asked me what were the last words I told him before I went after Wormtail and then he dropped the bomb that Dumbledore had sent him to the Dursleys. In the end he told me that Harry Potter was dead and walked away. You're lucky, you know, he likes you and has no hard feelings towards you."

Remus just continued to stare at him. He didn't understand anything anymore and said as much.

"I don't understand."

"Just come with me and I'll tell you." Sirius said and offered his hand to Remus. Remus took it and Sirius apparated them to what appeared to be the old Potter Manor.

"Welcome to Lux Manerium." Sirius said.

"Isn't this the old Potter Manor?" Remus asked confused. He was sure he recognized the place.

"Yes, it was. But after Harry changed his name it became Lux Manerium."

"He changed his name? Why?"

"He hasn't really been Harry Potter since that Halloween. We call him Sky now." Sirius said grimly. "Let's go inside and I'll tell you."

Remus followed Sirius inside and they sat down in the living room.

"You want some Firewhiskey?" Sirius asked as he poured some himself.

Remus almost refused, but then thought he would probably need it and just nodded. Sirius sat down opposite him and sipped his whiskey.

"So, whose story you want to hear first? Mine or Harry's?" Sirius asked.

Remus answered that Harry's and Sirius told him it with the same words Marcus had told him. Remus was outraged when he heard what Dumbledore had done and Sirius had to stop him from Flooing to Hogwarts and attacking Dumbledore. He also wanted go and give the Dursleys what they deserved, but Sirius wouldn't let him.

"So Harry Potter is really dead, like he told me." Sirius concluded.

"How can something like that happen?" Remus asked. He couldn't believe how much Harry had suffered in his life and he was only seven.

"I have had really hard time adapting and accepting that he isn't that little boy he once was." Sirius said. "All his innocence is pretty much gone and he's so mature. Only when he's excited about something, you can see a glimpse of what he would have been like, if he had grown to be a normal child."

They were both silent for a while until Remus spoke.

"What about you? What's your story?"

Sirius told him about how they had switched the Secret-Keepers and how he had went after Peter. He spoke about his years in Azkaban and how Harry and Marcus had gotten him a trial and how he had woken up in the House of Phoenix. He also told him about the past month he had spent with Harry and Marcus.

Remus pulled Sirius into tight hug when he finished. They held each other for a long moment before Sirius asked:

"What about you Moony, how have you coped with… everything?"

"I have managed. I have lived in France for the past six years, mostly in muggle world working in different part-time jobs. I mostly lived for Harry. I didn't want him to grow up without knowing his parents and I thought I was the only one left of us. I was planning to come back to England by the time he went to Hogwarts, as Dumbledore told me that he wouldn't know anything about wizarding world before then."

Remus could see Sirius eyes darken at Dumbledore's name, but he just nodded mutely.

"What made you come back?" Sirius asked quietly.

"I- You are probably going to think I am crazy, but last full moon I heard howling from somewhere, it was the kind when a pack calls its members. When I woke up the next morning I felt like I had to come back. And I'm glad I did, if I hadn't I wouldn't have met you in the graveyard." Remus said.

He glanced at Sirius who was gaping at him.

"What?"

"You –You heard it? Really, you heard it?" Sirius asked looking completely amazed.

"Heard what?" Remus asked confused.

"The howling. Harry said you would, but I didn't believe him."

"I'm not following."

"We were in Japan a few days ago at full moon and Harry had an idea that we should call you. He had read from some book that werewolves could hear their pack's calling at full moon no matter where they were. So we tried it and howled in our Animagus forms. I didn't believe it would really reach you, but apparently it worked." Sirius explained.

"You –it was you?" Remus asked.

"Yes."

"Wow."

"Yea, I know. And now I own Harry ten galleons." Sirius grumbled.

"Wait did you just say that Harry has an Animagus form? He's only seven!"

"Actually he has four forms and one of them is a phoenix."

"What?! If this is just some prank of yours I swear I'm gonna…"

"I wish, Remus, I wish it was."

"You mean he really has four forms!"

"Oh Remus, you don't know the half of It." Sirius said and launched into telling Remus all about Harry's abilities, training and studies.

* * *

Sky and Marcus returned from the Saint Mary's around eleven in the evening. They had lighted candles for Sky's parents, for his second family and for Marcus' wife and daughter. Sky felt much better after having visited them and now he could concentrate on spending his first Christmas with his current family.

Marcus had gone straight to bed wanting to let Sky have a moment with Sirius and Remus alone. Sirius was waiting for Sky ten galleons in his hand and told him that he had won the bet. Sky was amazed to know that it had worked and told Sirius that he really hadn't read it from any book, but had made it up to cheer him up and because he thought it would be fun. Sirius just shook his head and said that he wouldn't be surprised by anything that Sky did anymore.

Sky studied Remus' face while answering his questions about his life, training and studies. Remus looked too old to be only 27-years old. He could clearly see all the scars from his transformations and the effects of having a Lycanthropy. Sky could see the bite mark on his neck where Greyback had bitten him when he was a child.

Suddenly he felt a tingle run through his body to his fingertips and he felt the need to touch the scar on Remus' neck. Instinctively he moved to Remus and put his left hand on his forehead and the other on his neck where the scar of the bite was. He closed his eyes and focused. He could feel his magic run through his fingers to Remus and heal all the scars on his face and make him look like he would, if he didn't have the Lycanthropy.

Sky stepped back and looked at the much younger looking Remus, who stared at him back in wonder.

"What did you do to me?" Remus asked.

Sky didn't exactly know what he did, since he hadn't been able to access his healing ability more than a few times and didn't know why he was able to do it now.

"I don't know. I just did what my magic told me to." Sky said.

He watched Sirius, who looked completely bemused, hand Remus a mirror, who took it carefully and watched his reflection.

"You – How – Thank you." Remus said and pulled Sky to a tight embrace.

"Merry Christmas Moony." Sky said hugging him back.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review and give me some feedback on the story.**

**- Dalnim**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thanks for reviews. Here's the seventh chapter of Sky. Hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling**

_'Thoughts'_

* * *

**Six months later (contains a year of time travel) June, 1988**

It had been year and a half since Marcus had woken up on the Christmas morning and found a very much younger looking Remus sitting by the kitchen table drinking his morning tea. Marcus remembered thinking that Sirius or Sky was playing a prank on him before Remus told him what had happened.

Marcus had been amazed to hear that Sky had been able to heal Remus' scars since normally scars caused by a werewolf were impossible to heal. Sky's magic hadn't been able to heal him from his Lycanthropy, but nevertheless, Remus had been much happier and confident after that day.

Marcus continued to train and teach Sky like he had before, travelling with him from country to country, but this time they had Sirius and Remus with them. Sky had been happier than ever before and that made Marcus happy too.

A year ago, around June they had taken a time turner and went a year back in time, so that Sky could complete his training and studying. It was time for Marcus to return to the midst of the Unspeakables and free his replacement from his duties.

Today was the day that the four of them had returned from the past and it was time for Sky to take his OWLs and NEWTs. Marcus and Sky had years ago agreed that he wouldn't take them in Britain, because the Ministry of Magic there would make a huge issue of him taking them when he was only eight-years old. In the USA on the other hand, it was no big deal at all.

Marcus was sitting in the living room of the House of Phoenix, in Phoenix watching Sirius pace back and forth. Sky had wanted Remus to accompany him to the Ministry office in Phoenix where stuff like that was handled. Marcus was anxious and nervous at the same time while he waited for Sky and Remus to return, and Sirius' pacing wasn't helping.

"Just sit down, will you!" Marcus snapped at him. In America one could get his OWL and NEWT results on the same day – which was why they were all so nervous – and Sky had told them that he was going to wait his in the Ministry instead of coming home and wait there. Sirius had made him promise that he wouldn't open them before he was at home.

"How can you just sit there and wait?" Sirius asked frustrated. They had been waiting for almost two hours since Sky had sent them a message that he was done and that he would wait there for the results.

Marcus was just about to snap him to shut up, when Shadow flashed to the room with Sky and Remus. They were both wearing huge smiles and Sky had his result envelope in his hand.

"Sorry it took so long, but all the examiners wanted to meet and congratulate me for being the first wizard in 1000 years to achieve straight Os from all the possible OWLs and NEWTs." Sky said casually while handing the envelope to Marcus.

"You –What – Really?" Marcus asked and ripped envelope open. He skimmed through the results and found every one of them marked O, expect for three; his Potions, Defense and Dueling marks were all O.

Marcus tossed the paper to Sirius who was still trying to comprehend what Sky had just said, and pulled Sky to a tight hug whirling him around the room.

"I knew you could do it; I'm so proud of you." He said. He had never been so proud in his life, except when his daughter was born.

"Thanks" Sky mumbled into his shoulder.

Marcus let go of Sky and was pushed out of the way by Sirius who had finally realized what Sky had done.

"Congratulations Sky! Your parents would have been proud; I know I am." Sirius said while hugging him.

"Thank you."

"Now, this calls for celebration!" Sirius announced.

"You don't have to do anyth…" Sky started, but was interrupted by Remus.

"Don't bother, Sky. When Sirius wants to celebrate something, there is no stopping him." He said and handed him a butterbeer.

"Just remember that we must be in the Department of Mysteries 8 o'clock sharp." Marcus reminded them as he opened a bottle of butterbeer himself.

"Of course!" Sirius said while he poured Firewhiskey for him and Remus. "Remus and I'll be ready to begin our training in the morning."

"Make sure of it." Marcus said counting how many hangover potions they had in stock, in his head.

* * *

Sky woke up at six feeling refreshed and completely happy. He had passed his OWLs and NEWTs with best results possible, completed his Unspeakable training and was starting today as an active agent. Marcus had told him that he was going to keep him as a trainer at the beginning and let him get used to being an Unspeakable, before sending him on the field missions. Sky had accepted that and was eager to begin training others how to be an Unspeakable. He was aware of the fact that the older agents would probably think him as a little kid and not as a colleague, but Sky was prepared and would prove his worth to them.

Sky stepped out of his room after showering and walked to the living room. He saw Sirius and Remus sleeping on the couch Sirius head leaning onto Remus' shoulder. Sky smiled at the sight before smirking as conjured a bucket of ice cold water. He summoned a camera from his room and placed it on the table in front of them. He was just about to pour the water on to Sirius and Remus when he noticed Marcus standing at the door watching him in amusement. Sky just grinned at him and gestured him to take the camera from the table and be ready to take a picture. Marcus complied and stood in position as Sky mouthed at him; three, two, one – and Sky poured the ice cold water on Sirius and Remus.

Sirius woke up shrieking like a girl while Remus just jumped.

"Wazz going on?" Sirius mumbled sleepily leaning back against Remus' shoulder.

"Did you get it?" Sky asked Marcus who just nodded and banished the camera back to Sky's room.

"Get what?" Remus asked as he yawned. "Ow, my head… I feel like I've been run over by a dozen hippogriffs." He said holding his head.

Suddenly he realized that Sirius was leaning on him.

"Sirius! What do you think you are doing?" He asked his face coloring while pushing him away from him.

"What? Oh, sorry." Sirius said and blushed lightly as he noticed the amused looks on Sky's and Marcus' faces.

"So" He cleared his throat. "Anyone got a hangover potion?"

"What's this Sirius? You said that you would be ready to train by morning." Marcus asked.

"Yeah, well..."

"Here" Sky said and tossed them both a vial of the potion.

"Drink it and go to shower; we'll leave in an hour." Marcus said before leaving to the training areas. Sky followed him and they did their morning workout, before going to breakfast.

At half past seven they changed into their Unspeakable robes and took a Portkey that sent them straight to the Department of Mysteries. When they entered the main chamber there they saw a small group of people waiting for them. In the middle of them was an old man who wore the same kind of robes as Marcus' did. Sky recognized him as Septimus, whom had been a substitute for Marcus. He had been a retired Unspeakable, but had agreed to replace Marcus while he took his leave of absence. Marcus had told Sky that Septimus had been an active agent at the same time his grandfather had.

"Marcus, it is good to have you back at last." Septimus said and bowed to Marcus as was the greeting of the Heads. "We have been missing your contribution here. I'm too old for this kind of work." He continued smiling.

"It is good to be back." Marcus said bowing back. "Let me introduce you my apprentice Shade, and new trainees Padfoot and Moony." Marcus said. Most Unspeakables chose themselves a code name of some kind and Sirius and Remus had decided to be known by their Marauder names while Sky chose himself a new one. Only the Head of the Unspeakables knew the real names of the agents and trainees, if they didn't want to be known. The Heads were also only people who could see the faces of the agents when they were wearing their Unspeakable robes with their hoods up.

Sky could feel Septimus eyes studying him. Under his hood, he looked like his normal self, without any morphing, except for hiding the scar, and he wondered if Septimus recognized him.

In the end he just nodded and said:

"You have a young apprentice."

"Yes, Sky will start as a trainer, until he has gotten to use to his life as an active agent. Then I'll include him on the missions." Marcus said.

"He has already completed his training?" Septimus asked raising his eyebrows.

Sky could see the other agents getting interested in him and starting to send him curious looks – and a few skeptical too.

"Yes, he has." Marcus said. Sky could hear the proudness in his voice.

"Tell me, Shade, how old are you?"

"I'll be eight in a few months, Sir." Sky said using his fake birthday which was in October.

"Interesting." Septimus said and Sky could hear genuine curiosity in his voice. There were no trace of disapproval in his voice, but Sky could hear the other agents whispering about him. "You are to my knowledge the youngest agent ever in the midst of our Department. I wish you good luck." He continued and turned back to Marcus.

"Shall we go to your office, so that I can update you to recent events?" Septimus asked him.

"Yes." Marcus said before turning to the agents. "I hope that you treat our new trainees and a trainer with equal respect as your other colleagues." Marcus said firmly. "Seth, could you show Moony and Padfoot their teams?" Marcus asked and after receiving a nod from one of the trainers he left to his office with Septimus leaving Sky with the older trainers.

"Could one of you show me where the training areas are? I would like to see what level our trainees are." Sky asked politely. Marcus had already showed him where everything was, but he thought this was a good change as any to find out who were going to accept him easily and who weren't.

"Of course" Said one of the trainers. Sky could hear right away from his voice that he wasn't going to get along with him. "Right this way."

Sky knew right away that he wasn't going to the trainees' training area, but the active agents'. He decided to play along and see how good the active agents were.

"Just go through that door and you're there. They have an exercise going on, so you can go test them yourself."

Sky just nodded his thanks and entered the room smirking. He saw six agents duel each other in the training area. Sky walked towards them in the shadows, while transfiguring his robes and morphing himself into a four-year old kid with a brown tamed hair and dark eyes – which was the look he was going to wear in the Department. He ran from the shadows to the middle of the duel and adopted a scared little boy look.

The agents stopped dueling and gathered around him, completely letting their guard down.

"What are you doing here kiddo?" One of them asked.

"I-I got lost and I was told to come in from that door." Sky said in a scared little voice and pointed towards the door. As all the agents turned to look at the door, he attacked.

Sky took down two of the agents with a single blow to a nerve that disabled them and turned to fight the others. Only one of them had reacted fast and was shooting a spell towards him. Sky dodged it quickly and took down two more agents while dodging the spells that flew towards him by morphing his body's built as fast as he could. He took another agent down and the only one left, was the one who had reacted fast in the beginning. Sky moved fast towards him and jumped behind him using the wall next to him as a springboard and the last agent was down before he even realized what had happened.

Sky healed all the agents with a wave of his hand and helped them up.

"Never underestimate your enemy no matter how small or young he is." He said while he morphed to his normal height. "You are good, but you reactions are too slow, expect for you." Sky said and pointed the agent who had lasted the longest. "What is your name?"

"I'm Wolf."

Sky nodded. "You did well, but you all depend too much on magic. If you have your wand taken on a mission what would you do? Surrender and die? You should try some martial arts."

"Who the hell are you?" The man who had spoken to him in the beginning asked, but Sky could hear disbelief and respect in his voice.

"My name is Shade. I'm a new trainer here and was led to here kindly by my colleagues." Sky said and pointed at the three men in the stands. "They said that this was the trainees' training area, but I think you might be too advanced to be trainees, am I right?"

"You are, and I'm going to say a few chosen words for Serpent and his gang for not respecting his colleagues. I'm Blade, by the way, and these are Panther, Tricia, Tiger and Z."

"Nice to meet you all, you are all part of Team Five, aren't you?" Sky asked recognizing the names. There were eleven teams that contained from 5 to 10 agents each. The agents in each team changed according to mission, but not by much, which is why these agents were called the Team Five.

"Yes, we are, how did you know?"

"Marcus told me. He said he was your trainer before he left."

"How do you know Marcus? We haven't heard about him in years."

"I'm his Apprentice. He is back as a Head starting from today."

"He is? That's great. We need to go see him and welcome him back. Now what team are you going to be training?" Blade asked.

"I'm not sure yet. I'm taking over some of the trainees, but since I haven't got there yet I don't really know."

"Well, we'll take you there on our way to see Marcus. It would be great if you could show us some of your martial art moves, if you have time."

"Sure." Sky said and left the training room with the Team Five. _'This is going to be fun.'_

* * *

Marcus stepped in to his office he hadn't been in seven years. It looked the same as it did when he left – Septimus had already cleared off all his things.

"I am very intrigued by your Apprentice, Marcus." Septimus said his eyes twinkling as they sat down.

"I am sure you are, Septimus." Marcus said smiling lightly.

"It is very uncommon to have an Apprentice so young and to say that he has already completed his training."

"Yes, he is very intelligent." Marcus said. "A prodigy, really. He finished the training in only, little less than four years."

"Remarkable." Septimus said sounding impressed. "He looks so much like his grandfather."

"Yes, he does, and nearly identical to James. You never met him did you?"

"No, I didn't have that pleasure, though Charlus talked about him a lot." Septimus said. "How are you going to deal with his magical education?"

"I've already done that. He took his OWLs and NEWTs only yesterday and passed with full marks." Marcus said proudly.

"He passed his OWLs and NEWTs already?" Septimus asked amazed. "And you say he's only eight? Never in my long life have I heard about such a thing."

"I know. I have known him for four years – two if you don't count the time we spent in the past – and he still manages to surprise me almost daily." Marcus said fondly. He wasn't afraid of telling about Sky to Septimus, because he knew that he wouldn't be able to tell anyone about it. All Unspeakables were bound by oaths and they couldn't speak about the things that happened in the Department. Also Septimus was the best friend of Charlus Potter and would never do any harm for his grandson.

"Well, I wish you both the best of luck. All the documents from the years you were gone are on your desk. If you have something you need to know just floo me on my house in Riviera, I shall continue my retirement there." Septimus said before Portkeying away.

Marcus sighed as he looked at the pile of papers on his desk. It was going to take a long time to read all the reports from missions and agents, but he was happy to be back. He decided to start with paperwork and then go see all the agents after lunch.

He had had time to go through the papers only for half an hour when there was a knock on his door. He asked them to enter and saw his previous training team to come in.

"Hello Marcus, welcome back. " Blade said as he entered.

"Blade, Panther, Tricia, Tiger, Wolf, and Z…the famous Team Five." Marcus said smiling as he came to greet them. "Long time no seen; it's great to see you guys again."

"Where have you been all these years? No one's heard from you since you left." Panther asked giving him a hug. She looked same as always; her black hair tied to the back and blue eyes twinkling with curiosity.

"I mostly travelled the world, took myself an Apprentice two years ago and have been training him. He's here somewhere…" Marcus said.

"Yea, we met him already. Beat the whole team of us in less than five minutes and without magic." Tiger grumbled.

"Really? What did he do?" Marcus said laughing at their embarrassed faces.

"I honestly don't even know." Tiger said. "We were having our dueling exercise and suddenly there's a four-year old kid standing in middle of us. I didn't even notice where he came from. Blade asked him what he was doing there and he said that he was lost. He looked like he was on the verge of starting to cry and pointed at the door where he said he came from. We turned to watch the direction he was pointing and suddenly I couldn't move anymore."

"He took two of us – Tiger and Panther – down before we even realized what was happening." Wolf said. "We started firing spells at him, but he dodged them easily using some very weird technique. And then he took the rest of us one by one while dodging our spells. I was the last one up, but could do nothing; he was way too fast."

"Ah, I wish I could have seen that." Marcus said laughing. "What did he do then?"

"He kept a lecture of how we should never underestimate our enemies no matter how small they are and stuff like that and then told us not to rely so much on magic, work on our reactions and learnmartial arts." Blade said. "Do you have any idea how humiliating it was to listen to him lecturing us when he looked like an eight-year old? I mean we figured he was a Metamorphmagus, but why does he make himself look so young?"

"That's because he is that young. He will turn eight in a month or so…" Marcus said smirking.

"You – You mean to tell us that we got just beaten up and lectured by an eight-year old?" Tiger asked.

"Yes. And he's right; you shouldn't let your guard down even in front of a four-year old."

"Our reputation is gone." Tricia said. "We got humiliated by a child and in front of Serpent and his gang! The whole Department will know by tomorrow."

"Why was Serpent there?" Marcus asked.

"He's the one who brought Shade to our training area. Shade said that he asked to be taken to the trainees' and Serpent brought him to us."

"What are you talking about? Shade knows his way around here… unless… Of course; he was testing him." Marcus said.

"What do you mean?

"Sky knew he was going to be brought to you. He was testing his fellow trainers and tried to find out whom he could count on and who he couldn't." Marcus explained. "Serpent's better watch his back, if he's going to challenge Shade."

"You've got yourself a weird Apprentice, you know." Panther said.

"Believe me, I know. Now let's go see what's going on in the trainees' training areas." Marcus said and led them there.

As they reached the stands of the area they saw Sky watching over the trainees. Marcus could see his calculating look and almost see his mind creating different training techniques.

"Hello Marcus." Sky said without taking his eyes off from the trainees. There were about ten of them having mock duels against each other.

"Shade, I heard you have been busy fighting your colleagues."

"Yeah, well. I ended up in a wrong training area and decided to check them out. How come you never taught them any martial arts?" He asked turning to look at Marcus.

"There was really no time during the First War and Septimus didn't change any training programs" Marcus shrugged. "I will include it in the new program when I have time to do it."

"So Shade, have you tested the trainees yet?" Tiger asked him.

"No, not yet. I was actually just planning on how to do it. Guess I have to just improvise and go from there." He said and jumped from the stands to the training area landing smoothly.

Suddenly he disappeared.

"Where did he go?" Tricia asked.

Marcus searched the area, but saw no sight of Sky, even under Disillusion charm. Suddenly an ancient looking woman appeared in front of the trainees who immediately stopped their dueling. Marcus cast a charm so that they could hear what they were saying.

"- - don't understand what happened. My granddaughter gave it to me and said that it would take me to my cousin's husband's house. And my neighbor Mrs. Jones said that her husband was…" The old woman chattered.

"Ma'am, this is very interesting and all, but we need to find that Portkey of yours, so that we can get you home. Now you said it was a pearl, what kind of?" One of the younger trainees asked. Only three of the ten trainees had their wands ready in their hands pointing at the woman.

"It's a big and white and… Oh! There is it." The old woman yelled suddenly and all the trainees expect for one turned around to look where 'she' was pointing. And once again, when they turned around Sky attacked. He took down first three of them, while dodging the spell that the one who didn't fall for his trick, shot him. Sky kept taking them down and dodging spells until only one was left. Marcus saw Sky disarm his last opponent and give him a chance to fight him without magic. The young trainee had some skills in martial arts like judo and karate, but was no match for Sky, who was just playing and testing him as they fought. After a few minutes Sky finished the job. He disabled the young man like the others, before releasing them.

Marcus saw Sky help the young trainee up and congratulate him for lasting the longest and gave him a few tips. Then he turned to the other trainees and kept them pretty much the same lecture than for the Team Five.

"That was just..." Tiger started.

"Amazing." Z finished. Z was the kind of guy that was rarely impressed and he almost never talked. Marcus had heard him talk only twice before this, in all his time as Unspeakable.

Sky came back to the stands and said to Marcus:

"They are trainable, but they really need to learn not to let their guard time in front of a 'weaker' opponent. That guy who lasted the longest, Silver, especially showed potential. If they have the will, I can get them to the field in about three years or so."

Marcus just nodded and smiled lightly.

"How can you do that? The training usually takes at least six years." Tiger said. "Only one person has ever completed his training under six years and it still took him five years. Even Marcus trained six years."

"Who was it?" Sky asked curiosity shining in his eyes.

"Charlus Potter, he was the grandfather of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived and Marcus' mentor." Blade said. "He is a legend among our midst; the best agent ever to work here."

"You never told me that." Sky said to Marcus.

"I must have forgotten to mention it."

"Well, anyway, if the trainees really have the will to do it they can finish their training under six years. After all, if I could do it, why not them?"

"You finished your training in less than six years?" Wolf asked.

"Of course, you think that I started training when I was two?" Sky asked rolling his eyes. "I started when I was six."

"And you finished after just two years?" Blade asked incredulously.

"Actually in three and a half years – we went back in time a few times." Sky said.

"And you were studying to your OWLs and NEWTs at the same time." Marcus reminded him.

"Yeah, that too," Sky said dismissively. "But nonetheless, the training time depends more of the will and the attitude of the trainee. If you believe that you can't complete your training in less than six years, because others can't do it, then you can't do it."

Marcus watched amused as the Team Five gaped at Sky who just casually informed them that he had already taken his OWLs and NEWTs.

"Anyway, Marcus, are we having our normal duel after lunch, or are you too busy?" Sky asked ignoring the bemused looks surrounding him.

"Sure, why not. I can go through the paperwork later." Marcus said and they left to the cafeteria.

* * *

Sirius and Remus had been taken to the second training area that was for trainees. Marcus and Sky had started training them since that Christmas when Sky healed Remus's scars, so they were in a good shape, but not nearly advanced enough to be active agents.

Seth, the trainer who had taken them to the training area had tested them for what they already knew, and had been pleased with their progress. Seth was a very outgoing man. He was a few years older than Remus and Sirius, but they had become fast friends. Seth had spent the whole morning training them and telling them stories and legends of the Department.

Around lunch they heard the other agents gossiping about a duel between Marcus and Sky, which Seth wanted to see, so there they were sitting in the stands of the training room, which was for the most advanced agents.

"Oi Seth, wanna make a bet?" Sirius asked.

"Sure, I'll put ten galleons for Marcus." Seth said enthusiastically.

"Okay and I'll put ten galleons for Shade." Sirius said.

"You think he can win?" Seth asked. "He's just a kid. I didn't even know someone that young could become an agent."

"Shade's not a normal kid." Sirius said like it explained everything.

Remus nudged Sirius to be quiet as Sky and Marcus entered the dueling area. They bowed to each other and took their places.

Remus saw Sky and Marcus study and circle each other before Marcus shot Sky with a curse starting the duel. Sky easily dodged it and fired back. The duel was the same kind like they always had – all but unforgivable goes. They fired spells at each other so fast that it was almost impossible to make out what they were using, but Remus could make out a few that seemed to be Diffindo, Expelliarmus, Stupefy, Reducto, Obscuro and Confundo, though most of them missed. Sky was hit by an Obscuro that blinded him, but that didn't stop him. He used his other senses to continue and did it well, hitting Marcus with a Diffindo, which caused a huge cut into his right leg. Sometimes between the spell castings they managed to get a few blows by using some form of martial arts like karate or jujitsu.

The duel lasted for over an hour and both Marcus and Sky were covered in cuts and bruises. Sky cast the Serpensortia spell and sent a huge snake after Marcus distracting him and sent three powerful stunners that Marcus' shield couldn't take and he fell to the ground unconscious.

Sky destroyed the snake he had conjured and cast a counter charm on the blinding spell Marcus had hit him with before he limped to Marcus and woke him up with Enervate.

They bowed to each other and concluded the duel. The room was dead silent and dozens of agents stared at Sky who seemed to be oblivious to their looks. Sky used his healing magic to heal both himself and Marcus from the cuts and bruises. After healing Remus from his scars the previous Christmas, Sky had resolved to find out how to use his healing magic and had succeeded after few months. He now could use it whenever he needed.

The silence in the room broke suddenly and all the agents and trainees started cheering for Sky. Remus could hear Sirius demanding Seth to give him the ten galleons he owed him and laughing at the disbelieving look he had on his face.

"I told you Shade wasn't a normal kid."

* * *

**A/N: Please review and tell me what you think.**

**- Dalnim**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thanks for reviews. Here's the 8th chapter of Sky and I have decided we need some romance here, but since Sky's a bit young for that, I had to choose someone else. Hope you like it.**

**Warnings: Fluffy Slash (nothing graphic). Now I will try to inform you when there is going to be slash on the story so that those who don't like to read it can skip it and won't need to abandon the story because of it. I hope none of you will be offended because of this.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

)

It had been six months since Sky had started as a trainer in the Department of Mysteries. After the duel between him and Marcus most of the agents treated him with same kind of respect as their other colleagues, but there were a few – like Serpent and his gang – who still thought him as a child. Every change they got, they were picking on him, but Sky mostly ignored them.

On one day, after Sky had been there roughly three months Serpent went too far, when he started mocking him for being an orphan and insulting his family.

**Flashback**

_"Oi, orphan!" Serpent yelled at him as he walked down the corridor towards the training areas with Silver and Wolf. "Did your parents kick you out of the house because you're such a weirdo?"_

_Sky just kept walking and ignoring him, even though Wolf and Silver wanted to go kick his ass._

_"I'm talking to you Freak!" Serpent said and grabbed Sky from his left wrist where Dexter was sleeping and spun him around. The word 'freak' brought back Sky his memories from the abuse in the Dursleys and he felt the old fear creeping back at him, which quickly transformed into anger. His green eyes flashed with fury and his shields that confined his powerful magic went down. He slammed Serpent to the wall and kept him a few inches from the ground. Dexter hissed angrily and asked Sky to let him bit him._

_Sky half wanted to, but knew that it wasn't worth it to kill him and hissed back to Dexter that they would only scare him. He morphed his height to match Serpent and let Dexter to coil around Serpents neck. Serpents' face had paled dramatically and Sky could see fear in this eyes. He walked right in front Serpent and stared straight into his eyes. _

_"You like snakes, don't you Serpent? After all, you named yourself after them." Sky said with a voice barely above whisper, but there was no doubt that everyone in the corridor could hear it._

_"This is Dexter" Sky continued. "He is a magical form of the Black Mamba. He says that he would love to make acquaintance with you."_

_"_Can I jussst bite him?"_ Dexter hissed._

_"_No, jussst ssscare him."_ Sky hissed back and all the remaining color left from Serpent's face._

_"Did you know that a Black Mamba's poison takes twenty minutes to spread, Serpent? Twenty very painful minutes; you can feel the life leaving you, your body paralyzing minute after minute, until you're dead. Dexter would very much like to bite you, Serpent." Sky whispered his magic vibrating around him. "But you're not worth it, Serpent. You're worth nothing."_

_Sky released Serpent, who fell to the ground shaking, and walked away containing his magic behind the shields._

**End of Flashback**

The incident had spread all over the Department by the next day and it was safe to say, that never again did Serpent or any other agent picked on Sky.

Sky – or Shade, which was his codename on the Department and during missions – had just come back from his first mission, which had been successfully completed. He, team Five and a few other agents had been sent to a mission of tracking down a serial killer called The Albatross, who kept killing Muggleborn wizards and witches by first torturing them and then cutting them to pieces and sending the pieces to their families. For years they had been trying to find him and he was rumored to have worked for Voldemort before his fall.

Now a fortnight ago he had been spotted in Berlin and Marcus had sent them there to track him down. It had taken them two weeks to find and capture him. It appeared that The Albatross wasn't working alone, but had two very powerful associates, though, none of them were nowhere near Sky's power. The team led by Blade had fought them right on a scene when they were about to kill yet another Muggleborn woman. They had captured two of them, The Albatross and his other associate alive, but the third one had died. It was the first kill Sky had made in his time in the Department and he was a little shaken about it.

Sky knew that the kill had been necessary since the man would have killed Blade otherwise. He had known that there might come times when he would have to kill on the missions, but he hadn't expected it come so fast. Sky had sent the Reducto on the man, purely following his instincts and the man had fallen from the balcony and broke his neck.

Killing wasn't something he was used to, though he had seen and done all kinds of things while on the streets, so he was a little shaken about it, even if he didn't have any regrets. He had used his Occlumency training to sort out his emotions and had gotten over it.

Now he was sitting in Marcus office with his team while Blade reported their mission to Marcus. As he finished Marcus turned to Sky.

"Are you okay Shade? With the killing?" Sky could see the concern on his eyes as he looked at him, but his voice was normal.

"Yes, I am. I don't like it, but it was necessary." Sky said calmly.

"The first time is always the worst." Tiger said.

Sky was almost tempted to ask him what made him think it was his first, but held his tongue as he really didn't want to talk about his past.

"Very well, just come to me if you need to talk about it." Marcus said and dismissed them.

Sky knew that he would be in for an interrogation when he got home, both from Marcus and Sirius and Remus.

_'Well, that's what you get when you have your boss as your guardian' _He thought.

* * *

**Warning: The rest of the chapter will contain mild Slash!**

Sirius woke up with a start covered in cold sweat. Once again he had dreamt about Dementors and Azkaban, and all the painful memories he had experienced while there were flashing through his mind.

He got up and washed his face in the bathroom, before leaving his room. The house was dead silent, and the only sound he could hear was his own footsteps. Sirius walked down the stairs straight to the living room and poured himself a glass of Firewhiskey. He sat down on the loveseat thinking about past and all that had happened in the last few years.

The old guilt of convincing Lily and James to switch the Secret-Keeper from him to Peter was creeping up on him, but he pushed it away thinking only the good old times with them in Hogwarts.

Sirius was so lost in his memories that he didn't hear Remus entering the room, before he spoke.

"Can't sleep?" He asked pouring himself a glass of Firewhiskey too. Sirius jumped and went for his wand before realizing that he didn't have it with him, and that it was only Remus in the room.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." Remus said and sat down next to him.

"It's okay." Sirius said relaxing.

"Did you have a nightmare?" Remus asked.

Sirius just nodded mutely.

"Azkaban again?"

"Yeah… haven't had one in a while."

"I told you to come to me, if you have nightmares, Sirius. I don't want you to be alone." Remus said.

"I didn't want to bother you." Sirius mumbled, but couldn't help the feeling of delight that Remus cared about him so much.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Remus asked gently.

"Not really, it was the same as always; bad memories and… guilt." Sirius said his voice breaking. He could feel the tears running down his cheeks, but didn't stop them. "Lily and James… I just miss them so much, Moony. And Harry… he has to live like this without them and defend for himself, now even kill…"

Sirius had been horrified to hear that Harry had had to kill someone during his first mission and all three of them had been bugging him the whole day to talk about it. Finally he had snapped and told them it wasn't his first time of taking a life and that he was over it, which made them even more horrified, but in the end they had left him alone.

Remus moved closer to Sirius and pulled him to a tight embrace, running his hand through Sirius' hair.

"I know, Padfoot, I miss them too. But Harry will be fine. He knew what he signed up for, when he accepted the Unspeakable training."

Sirius hugged Remus back like his life depended on it. He felt good being so close to Remus. He felt safe and calm in his arms, and he never wanted to let go. A shiver ran down his spine and he felt a pleasant tingle in his stomach of the feeling of Remus' hands in his hair. His heart started bounding faster and he wished that he could just stay with him there forever…just holding each other.

Too soon Remus pulled back and wiped Sirius's tears away from his cheeks, but didn't remove his hand. Remus hand was soft and warm on his cheek and Sirius had to resist an urge to close his eyes and lean on it. Instead he just watched him and couldn't help but notice how beautiful Remus looked like in the faint moonlight, especially now that he had no scars or age lines on his face. Sirius had never really minded the scars, but the lines made Remus look too old and weary.

They were only a few inches apart and Sirius found himself lost in Remus beautiful amber eyes, thinking what it would be like to kiss him. _'What are you doing? Not this again, you promised yourself you'd only think of him as a friend.'_ Sirius 'rational' part thought, as it always did when Sirius thought about Remus as more than a friend. _'You're thinking about kissing Moony! He's your best friend! Do you really want to risk your friendship for this?'_

But Sirius couldn't tear his eyes from Remus' soft gaze. His eyes were gentle, but Sirius could see a little sadness, doubt, expectance and a hint of fear in them. And then there was something that could only be described as…love.

"Sirius…" Remus whispered as he moved his hand from his cheek.

All arguments and rationality vanished from Sirius' head as he heard Remus say his name and purely on instinct he closed the small gap between them and brushed his lips against Remus' pulling him into a deep, lingering kiss. His lips were soft and tasted like chocolate and vanilla. Sirius felt like he was in heaven.

Sirius could feel Remus' surprise, but soon enough he was kissing him right back. They broke apart after a while and Sirius could feel his face heating up.

"Remus, I – I'm sorry, I don't…" he started, but was cut off by Remus, who pulled him into another kiss, that was deeper and more heated than the first one. Sirius could feel Remus' tongue begging for access into his mouth, which he promptly gave him, and the next thing he knew were fireworks exploding behind his eyes. Sirius felt his knees weakening and had he been standing, he would have fallen down on his knees of the power and passion Remus poured into the kiss. Their tongues explored each other's mouths biting, licking and nipping, until they had to pull out to breath.

"Wow" Sirius breathed. "That…That was just…Wow."

"Yeah."

"Remus… I – I think I'm in love with you – have been since sixth year. I don't…I'm sorry –" Sirius started rambling.

"Sirius…" Remus tried to interrupt.

"- - I just couldn't keep it inside anymore. - -"

"Sirius"

"- - I had to tell you that I love you and - -"

"Sirius!"

"- - it doesn't matter, if you don't feel the same way, we can just forget this ever happen… "Sirius rambled, but was cut off by Remus, who took his face between his hands and kissed him briefly to shut him up.

"I love you too, Sirius." He said and it took a moment for Sirius to comprehend what he had just said.

"You – You do?"

"Yes, I love you." Remus repeated and Sirius pulled him yet again to another kiss.

They snuggled together in the loveseat, stealing kisses and just holding each other in their arms.

"Have you really loved me since sixth year?" Remus asked quietly.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"I – I think it was the Willow incident when I realized that I had some feelings for you. You didn't speak to me for months and just ignored me, and it was really killing me inside. It hurt so much to see you, but not be able speak to you or be with you, that I thought I was gonna die. Then after you forgave me, I couldn't bring myself to tell you and risk our friendship, when I had just gotten you back. For a long time I just ignored and denied my feelings thinking that they were purely friendly and nothing more. I kept trying to get rid of them by going out with numerous girls, but the feeling just kept growing stronger and I kept thinking about you all the time and in the end couldn't be with one girl more than a few days." Sirius said. "I think I wasn't ready to give up my player image and was afraid of my feelings and commitment and actually admitting that I was gay." Sirius continued thoughtfully. "James found me out after his and Lily's wedding, and tried to persuade me to tell you. In the end I made a resolve to tell you on that Halloween night, but never got the chance."

"James knew?"

"Yea, he called me an idiot and a coward for not telling you, but was still there for me when I needed to talk or something." Sirius laughed. "How about you? When did you realize that you loved me?"

"At the end of fifth year." Remus said. "I found myself staring at you in class or in common room and was thinking about you all the time. I missed you at summer even if I had just seen you the day before and was worried to death when I heard that you had run away from home. It was really killing me to not see if you were okay, even though you wrote to me, that you were. Then at the start of sixth year I – I started… err… having dreams…" Remus continued blushing. "Anyway, then there was the Willow incident and I - I was angry and felt betrayed and it was ten times worse, when I knew that I loved you, than it would have been if you just had been my friend." Remus said quietly.

"I'm sorry Moony." Sirius whispered.

"I know and I forgave you about it, though it took me some time." Remus said and pecked Sirius' neck. "It was hard for me too, to be apart from you even though I was angry, but I couldn't bring myself to forgive you any sooner than I did. One of the reasons that I didn't ever tell you how I felt was that losing you guys as friends would have killed me. I was afraid that you would start rejecting me and abandon me if I told you, and I thought that you were straight, because of all the girls you went out with. Another part was because of my Lycanthropy. I always thought in the back of my mind that even if you or anyone else were a gay, you wouldn't want to be with me because I was a werewolf. I knew that I couldn't give you or anyone else anything, because I couldn't be able to hold a job or anything." Remus said.

"Oh, Moony. We would have never abandoned you like that just because you were a gay or a werewolf –_ I_ would have never done that. Even if you had told me about your feelings and didn't return them, I wouldn't have abandoned you." Sirius said snuggling closer to him.

"I know, but I just couldn't take the risk." Remus said.

They were silent for a moment before Remus spoke again.

"It was really hard for me, when you were in Azkaban. I lost everything that night and if it wasn't for Harry, I probably would've committed suicide. I thought that you had betrayed them and I hated myself for not being able to hate you even though you had just killed everything I had, and for not being able to stop loving you."

"I'm sorry Remus" Sirius said looking at him deeply into his eyes.

"I know Sirius, but it's all in the past." Remus said and kissed him, before snuggling close to him and closing his eyes.

"I love you Remus." Sirius murmured sleepily.

"I love you too, Sirius."

* * *

Remus woke up next to a warm body and it took him a moment to recall where he was and what had happened. Smiling, he looked down Sirius' sleeping face that looked so calm and happy. Remus slipped his hand down Sirius' waist and pulled him as close as possible. Now that he had him, after twelve years of hiding feelings and suffering, he wanted to never let go. Remus thought back to the events of last night. Every kiss, touch and look was printed to his memory and he had never felt happier than he did now.

Sirius murmured something in his sleep and turned around to face Remus and buried his face to Remus' neck. Remus lay there just listening Sirius' steady breathing before taking out his wand and casting the Tempus charm. It showed half past eight in the morning and some part of him registered that they were half an hour late from work, but found that he didn't really care. He just wanted to lay there snuggling with Sirius and never leave. He wondered briefly why Marcus or Sky hadn't woken them, but remembered then that Marcus was going to work at noon and Sky at ten, so neither of them would be awake yet. Remus thought that he ought to wake Sirius up before Sky would come down, to discuss if they were going to tell him and Marcus about their new relationship or not.

He started laying kisses at Sirius neck and face and whispering him to wake up. Sirius let out small moans before his eyes fluttered open.

"Hmm… I could get used to waking up like this." Sirius said smiling brightly as he pulled Remus closer to him.

"I know, I could too." Remus said, burying his face to Sirius hair. "We should get up. We are half an hour late from work, you know."

"Mmm… I don't wanna." Sirius mumbled to his chest. "I wanna stay here with you."

"Me too, let's just skip the day and stay here." Remus said.

"Who are you, and what have you done to Remus Lupin, the dutiful, hardworking, lovely bookworm?" Sirius asked playfully.

"It's your fault, Siri; you're rubbing of on me. I love you too much to let you go and go to work." Remus said.

"I like this new side of you, Remmie." Sirius said with a goofy grin on his face and kissed him briefly. "And I love you too."

"What are we gonna say to Sky and Marcus?" Remus asked after a while.

"Can't we just tell them? I would like to go and shout to the world that I love you, but I think you wouldn't let me."

"You're right, I wouldn't. And yes we can tell them."

"Good."

"Now, I need to make tea." Remus said. He always needed his morning tea to wake up properly and this morning wasn't an exception.

"No, I won't let you go." Sirius whined and held tighter to him.

"I'll come back as fast as I can, but now I need my tea. You know I'll get in a very bad mood if I don't get my tea." Remus said kissing Sirius on a temple and sliding from his grip.

"Fine, but you get right back here or you'll regret it." Sirius threatened, but couldn't quite pull it off with a serious face.

"Oh and what are you going to do if I don't?" Remus asked playing along.

"I know where you're ticklish, Remmie." Sirius said smirking smugly and Remus gulped – he was very ticklish, and had always lost every tickling war they had had while in Hogwarts.

"Okay, okay I'll come straight back, when I've made us tea."

"Good."

Remus gave Sirius a final kiss and walked towards kitchen. To his great surprise he saw Sky sitting there reading the Daily Prophet and drinking tea.

"Morning, Remus." He said and Remus could hear a faint amusement in his voice. "Sleep well?"

"Morning Sky. And yes I did." Remus said blushing slightly as he poured himself a cup of tea.

"I would imagine so." Sky said smirking. "You looked very cozy with Sirius this morning."

Remus felt his blush deepen and tried to explain.

"Err… Sirius had a nightmare and I – We just… err."

"Remmie, what's taking you so long?" Sirius interrupted his rambling and came to the kitchen. _'Always so impatient.'_

"Oh, morning Harry – err…Sky."

"Morning, Sirius. I was just talking with Remus – or should I say _Remmie_ – of how well he slept last night." Sky said smirking and raising an eyebrow.

Sirius blushed as red as Remus, but nevertheless hugged Remus from behind.

"Yeah, you see we love each other, and are together now." Sirius said.

Sky just smiled widely and said: "Took you long enough."

"What do you mean?" Remus frowned.

"Well you weren't exactly very secretive about your feelings for each other. I mean I could see it the very second that you met again in Godric's Hollow."

"You – What? How? Remus was pointing his wand at me just about ready to curse me and you say you could see it there?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"You think I would've left him alone with you, if he was going to kill you? No. I knew right away that you were in love with each other and that Remus loved you too much to seriously hurt you."

"And how would you know that being so young? Sirius asked.

"I saw a lot of things while living in the streets and travelling with Marcus." Sky shrugged.

"So you're okay with us… being together."

"Of course, as long as you use silencing charms and don't get too syrupy while I'm around, we're cool." Sky smirked and both Sirius and Remus blushed again. "Really I'm happy for you guys."

"Thank you, Har – Sky."

"Marcus told me to inform you that you have the day off today." Sky said smiling as he prepared to leave for work.

"That's nice of him."

"Yea and you can call me Harry, in private, if it's easier for you."

"Really?"

"Yea. You are the only people left who really knew me as Harry – except for Marcus, but he's used to calling me Sky – so it's not fair to force you to call me something else. As long as it's in private."

Remus and Sirius just stared at him wordlessly, before hugging him.

"Thank you Harry." Remus said letting him go.

"Thanks Prongslet." Sirius said gently.

"Prongslet?" Sky asked curiously.

"Oh, it's a name I gave you when I first held you as a baby. After your dad's Animagus form Prongs." Sirius explained smiling. "It kind of became your pet name that we all used, though your mum insisted on calling you Emerald."

"Oh…" Sky said a little abashed. "Well, I gotta get to work. Have fun on your day off." He said and left.

Remus and Sirius watched him go in silence, before Sirius turned to Remus.

"So what are we going to do on our day off?" Sirius asked smirking.

"I just bought a new book a few days ago, so I was thinking of spending the day reading it." Remus said sipping his tea.

"Moony!" Sirius exclaimed scandalized. "You are going to spend _our _firstday off together reading a book?"

Remus couldn't keep a straight face anymore and burst out laughing at the look on Sirius face. He slid his hands on Sirius' waist and pressed their foreheads together.

"You really think I would do that after waiting for twelve years to get you to myself?" Remus asked Sirius gently.

Sirius just smiled widely and kissed him.

"So, how about we go back to bed and get some more sleep before really beginning the day."

"Sounds good." Remus said and they walked to Sirius' room hand in hand.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading. Some of you, if you have checked my other stories, find that most of this chap has been published earlier as a one shot called Wolfstar (I just love the pairing). I hope you weren't offended by my choice of pairing, but if you were, there's no need to flame me because of it as you can just skip the parts or stop reading the story.**

**Please review and give me some (constructive) feedback. Thanks.**

**- Dalnim**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Thanks for reviews. I'm glad many of you were not offended by the wolfstar pairing, though there were a few that didn't know what 'no flames' mean. Oh well, can't please everyone, I guess.**

**Answers to some questions: No, Sky will not be gay in this story. The only slash pairing will be Wolfstar and I don't think there will be much of that either apart from few scenes I have already decided.**

**As for Remus' werewolf transformations - I'm not sure I mentioned it somewhere, but they are easier to him after being heled from the scars and having his pack with him. During the years he has lived with Sirius, Sky and Marcus, he has learned to accept the wolf, which makes them less painful, though not completely, and having his pack with him in their animagus forms helps him too when he transforms.**

**This is the last chapter of PART ONE. I hope you like it.**

_'Thoughts'_

"Talking"

* * *

Marcus was making his daily rounds around the Department like he had been doing when he got back to work seven months ago. He wanted to get to know all his agents and trainees and see how they progressed in their missions and training. He had started to do the same thing in the research part of the DoM, which was more known to the people in Ministry. In fact no-one apart from the agents that worked there, the Head and the Head Auror even knew that there was another part in the DoM, which was why they succeeded in their missions so well.

Marcus' goal was to be as approachable as possible and not just the mysterious Department Head whom no one ever saw. The people who didn't know him from the past learned to trust him, and that they could come to him if they were having any problems. There were no bullies in the Department anymore, partly because of Marcus' presence, but mostly because they were all afraid of Sky. Sky's display of Magic after the few months they had been there had frightened all the possible bullies, not just Serpent, who had been quiet and only concentrated on his job after that.

Marcus of course had felt Sky's burst of magic – he doubted that no-one in the Ministry had missed it – and heard rumors about the events, before Sky later on had told him about it. Marcus had had to lecture him about it, if only for appearances sake, but in truth he had been proud of Sky for lasting as long as he did, and told him as much. Marcus understood why Sky had snapped and couldn't really blame him for that. After all, he himself had fought with Serpent when he was younger and even hexed him in more than one occasion.

Marcus changed a few words with the trainees and trainers in their training area before going to the advanced agents' area, where he saw Sky go through his usual training. He sat down in the stands watching Sky move fast against thirty training dummies that had been programmed to fight on the highest level possible. He was fighting them with wandless magic as usual, but this time he was only using Dark arts.

Marcus had taught him the Dark arts during his training, but only after Sky had understood the difference between Light and Dark. He had taught him that being 'Dark' or using Dark arts didn't mean the same as evil and that not all 'Light' was good. After all, one could use a 'Light' spell to kill someone too. Sky had learned quickly that only the intent mattered and it seemed to Marcus that Sky had adapted it even before they had talked about it.

Marcus was brought out of his musings by Blade, Panther, Wolf and Z, who sat down beside him watching Sky, who had finished his training with the dummies and started with a mock mission, which he had asked one of his fellow agents to create for him.

The training rooms in the DoM were like the Room of Requirement in Hogwarts and by using them they could easily create mock missions for training. Sky often asked one of his colleagues to create one for him and the other agents had taken it upon themselves to try to make up a mission that Sky wouldn't be able to pass. So far no-one had succeeded.

"Seven months and I still can't understand how he can be that good." Blade said shaking his head as Sky advanced through the mission. It was a night mission where Sky's task was to retrieve an object from a heavily guarded fortress.

"And how can he be so mature and professional?" Panther joined in smiling fondly, but sadly. "He's only eight."

"Shade… He hasn't had a very happy childhood, and it has forced him to mature early." Marcus said, not really knowing how to answer. He knew he could trust the team Five with everything, but he didn't want to give away too much and reveal Sky's identity. It was just too risky, even with all the oaths that Unspeakables had to swear.

"What happened?" Wolf asked.

"It's up to him to tell you that." Marcus said.

"Where did he go?" Blade asked suddenly. Marcus scanned the field, but could saw no sign of Sky, which was odd, since all the spectators should be able to see what happened on the mission.

"I don't know." Marcus said. "He can't be under any disillusionment charm, we would see that.

Suddenly Sky reappeared and 'killed' the last enemies with his katana and retrieved the wanted object.

"How the hell did he do that?" Blade asked as they walked down to the field as the room changed back to normal. Marcus said nothing as he walked towards Sky, lost in his thoughts. He thought about all the times Sky had done something similar like in Sirius trial or in the monastery, and remembered his resolve to find out how he did it, which he had completely forgotten until now.

"Marcus, Blade, Panther, Wolf, Z." Sky nodded to them all while wiping his sweaty face to the towel. "What's up?"

"We were watching your training and were curious of how you managed to disappear like that, before you ended the mission." Wolf said.

"I don't know. I just kinda blended to the shadows. I've done it a few times before… It's like an instinct; I don't even realize all the times I'm doing it…" Sky shrugged.

"You blend with the shadows?" Wolf asked incredulously.

"Yea."

"How'd you do that?"

"He's a Shadow Walker."

They all turned around to look at Z, who hadn't spoken since Sky first came to the Department.

"A what?"

"A Shadow Walker. A person, who can hide, and travel through the shadows, some say that they could even call up, create and wield them, but there is no evidence of that. The Shadow Walkers are a myth, a legend that has been told from generation to generation for hundreds of years."

"And you think that I'm a Shadow Walker?" Sky asked cocking an eyebrow.

"It is possible. There hasn't been a Shadow Walker in centuries." Z said.

"Why?" Wolf asked.

"People started to realize the importance of their children and care for them more. Also the Ministry passed laws to forbid child abuse."

"How does child abuse have anything to do with Shadow Walkers?" Panther asked.

Marcus closed his eyes. He already knew. He had heard rumors about the Shadow Walkers before, but never thought they were really real. He opened his eyes and regarded Sky who had stiffened at the mention of child abuse, but not enough for the others – except for Z, who watched him intently – to notice.

"To become a Shadow Walker, one must be kept in a small, dark place as a child younger than a five-year-old at least for a year." Z continued while watching the blank, closed expression on Sky's face that he always had when his past was mentioned. There was a brief silence as Blade, Panther and Wolf tried to comprehend what Z had just said. One by one they turned to look at Sky with different kinds of expressions of disbelief, horror, anger, pity, sympathy and understanding.

"So, how do I control it?" Sky asked calmly, like nothing had happened. Sky could possibly fool the others, but Marcus knew him too well to not notice that he was using Occlumency to keep his emotions in check, and he was sure that Z noticed too.

Z regarded Sky for a moment before answering:

"The same way you mastered your healing powers; concentrate on your magic, meditate and find your magical core and access the power. Then you only have to train and use it."

"Thanks Z." Sky said flashing a bright smile for him, though it didn't entirely reach his eyes. "I'm gonna hit the showers. I have a training session with Silver in fifteen minutes." He said and nodded to Marcus and the others before walking out of the room.

They stood in silence for a moment before Panther turned to look at Marcus a demanding look on her face.

"How long?"

"What do you mean?" Marcus asked and started walking back towards his office.

"How long was he kept in the dark?" Panther asked irritated as she hurried after him with the others.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Marcus said. He knew exactly what she was talking about, but didn't want to betray Sky's trust in him.

"Marcus Ryan Lee, you tell me right now or I'll…" She started, using the same tone that she always used when she really wanted to know something. Marcus knew that tone from the time they were in Hogwarts together and knew that if he let her continue, she would eventually get what she wanted.

"You will what, Panther?" He asked as they stepped into his office. "You forget that I am your boss here Panther, and I'm sworn to secrecy about the backgrounds of all my agents."

"We are not discussing here just one of your agents, Marcus. We are talking about Shade, as a child he still is no matter how mature he is, and as your _son_, whom we all care and love. – And don't you dare deny him as your son Marcus Lee, I know you love him as much as you did your wife and your daughter." Panther said sternly and Marcus knew that he couldn't get out of this one.

"It took me two years to get him to trust me completely, Marie." Marcus sighed using Panther's real name. "Don't ask me to betray his trust by asking me to tell you things about his past he doesn't want to be known."

Panther pondered this for a while before coming to decision. "Just tell me how long he was kept in the dark and I'll drop it for now."

Marcus knew that this was the best deal he would get and decided to take it.

"Four years."

"Four…years?" Wolf asked. Marcus could see the horror and outrage in their eyes and expressions, even on Z's, who had closed his eyes to keep himself calm.

"Yes, four years in a cupboard." He said. "Now, get back to work, I have things to do. And don't bother Shade about this; he doesn't want to talk about his past." Marcus continued and ushered them out of his office, before they could argue against it.

He sighed as he closed the door. He knew he would have to speak to Sky about his new found ability and probably the Dursleys too. And he didn't want Sky to go through that pain of remembering his abuse in their hands again.

* * *

"Hi." Marcus said as he sat down next to Sky in the living room, where he was reading some thick book of potions.

"Hi."

"You okay? With what happened this afternoon?"

"Sure, I've another rare ability. What's the big deal?" Sky said without removing his eyes of the book."

"You know that's not what I meant." Marcus said quietly.

"Fine" Sky sighed and closed his book with a snap, turning to look at Marcus. "I'm pissed off."

"Pissed off?" Marcus asked confused.

"Yea"

"Why?"

"You saw how they looked at me – with pity. I hate it when someone looks at me like that. They see me as an abused kid and not what I really am. Sure I'm an abused kid, but that doesn't mean that I need to be pitied or treated like glass, and it sure doesn't define what or who I am. I have faced my demons in the past and got over it. Of course when someone mentions child abuse or whatever, it'll bring back memories, but I just don't like to be reminded of it every time one of them looks at me." Sky ranted.

"I know Sky." Marcus said. "But I'm sure they'll get over it and see you as you. You know how Marie is. She likes to mother children no matter who's they are."

"How much did you have to tell them? I know she wouldn't have just let it pass." Sky asked.

"I only told them how long you were kept in the cupboard and made them swear not to bother you." Marcus said.

"Like Panther would let it go" Sky snorted. "She will bring it up again when the opportunity rises."

"Yea, she's like that. She was like that when we were young too; no secrets could get by her."

"Why does she try to mother everyone like that?"

"During the First War she and Blade were expecting a child. They were very happy and Panther had always wanted to have children. One day, when she was about six months pregnant, their home was attacked by a bunch of Death Eaters. She was tortured by a Cruciatus and lost the child. The healers told her that she wouldn't be able to have children anymore." Marcus said sadly. "Since then she's been fiercely protective of children. The Dursleys better hope that they won't ever meet her."

"Yeah."

"Did you try to access your new found power?" Marcus asked changing the subject.

"Not yet, I thought I research Shadow walkers first and then try. The Black library's bound to have something, if the Potter library doesn't." Sky said.

"Yea, it's probably better to know what you're dealing with first. I can help you to search, if you like."

"Sure, let's go to Grimmauld place first. I have a feeling that we won't find anything here." Sky said and jumped up.

They apparated straight to the library and started to search for any references to Shadow Walkers. It took them over two hours before Marcus found a small book called The Shadow Walkers through the time. They opened the book and started to read.

_The Shadow Walkers, also known as Shade shifters have been around since the time of Merlin. The rumor has it, that Merlin himself had been the first ever Shadow Walker and passed the knowledge to his students. The Shadow Walkers are said to be able to travel through the shadows and create them from nothing wherever they are. It is also possible to call upon the shadows and wield them as a weapon._

_To become a Shadow Walker one must be unwillingly kept in a small, dark room for a long time as a child. It is calculated that only children younger than five years old are able to receive this gift, and the child must be magically powerful one. The minimum time one must be kept in the Dark to get the power is 367 days. However, the longer the child is kept there, the better control one has over the shadows -._

"It says basically the same thing as Z did, though there are a few chapters of how to use them. I think it's better, if I don't take this book too seriously and just experiment all that I can do and go from there. The book is mostly speculation, so nothing in it is really confirmed." Sky said. "I'll read it through and then try to access my powers."

"Good, but don't try anything alone in case something happens." Marcus said and left Sky to read the book.

* * *

Sky walked down the corridors of Saint Mungo's along with five trainees – which included Padfoot and Silver – and Panther. They were the most advanced of the trainees that Sky had been training and it was time for them to start their education in advanced healing, which was required to become a full-fledged agent. Sky himself had been taught by Marcus and a Chinese monk, who had been specialized in healing, while they were in China during their first year of time travel. His healing abilities had greatly improved after he had learned to control his power to heal. Now he could heal even the most fatal wounds, but unfortunately his ability didn't extend to diseases like lycanthropy.

They approached the Head Healer who introduced herself as Healer Johnson. Sky remember seeing her once in the DoM, visiting Marcus to arrange the healing training as only the Head Healer was allowed to do so. It was difficult business to arrange as it had to be done in the Saint Mungo's, but without anyone but the Head Healer knowing that they were Unspeakables. All the trainees were in a disguise so that no one would see their real identity, as they couldn't wear their robes to maintain secrecy.

Healer Johnson started their training with a tour around the hospital while explaining about the different wards in each floor. Sky mostly tuned out the healer's lecture and looked around the hospital, as he was only there with Panther to keep an eye on the trainees. Sky had never been in Saint Mungo's before and was very curious about the different healing magicks used in different wards.

As they reached the fourth floor, where spell damage was treated and the long-term patients kept, Sky felt a weird tingling feeling under his skin. It was like something was pulling him towards the long-term residence ward, where the patients all had some kinds of mental problems. Sky told Panther to stay with the trainees and started following the pull.

He entered a ward where six mentally damaged patients were residing and walked to the last room in the back. The pull led him towards a woman and a man that lay in two separate beds, staring to the ceiling with glassed eyes. Sky recognized the couple right away as Alice – who was his godmother – and Frank Longbottom, who were tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange to insanity a day after Voldemort's downfall, before she was captured and sent to Azkaban. They had left behind their son Neville, who was, according to Sky's knowledge, living with Frank's mother Augusta Longbottom.

The tingling feeling grew stronger the moment Sky had entered the room and only following his instincts, like he had at Christmas in 1987, he approached them and laid his hands on their foreheads. He closed his eyes and concentrated letting his magic run freely. He could feel his magic gathering and running through his body, before it emerged from his fingertips to Alice and Frank. Soon the whole room was flowing with magic and shining with bright light. He didn't know how long he had been standing there, when he felt his magic retire back into his body and the darkness surrounded him.

* * *

Sirius was dead bored listening to the Head Healer lecturing about the different wards in the hospital. He had gone through that once already during his Auror training after his graduation at Hogwarts, and had spent a lot of time there with James when they were young as James' mom had worked there as a healer – there were no places in Saint Mungo's that Sirius didn't know about.

Sirius let his thoughts wander to the memories he had shared with James in the hospital, before he started missing Remus. It had been a full moon last night and Remus hadn't been able to come; he always felt very weak afterwards. Sirius wished he could be at home with him and take care of him, but Remus had insisted that he went to work saying that if he needed help he would ask the elves.

He was brought out of his musings by Panther, who was nudging him to the side.

"What?"

"Can you go look for Shade?" Panther whispered. "He went off to somewhere in fourth floor, where the long-term patients are residing. I would go myself, but I can't leave the trainees."

Sirius just nodded glad to be able to escape the boring lecture and left back to the fourth floor. He looked for Sky a long time from different rooms and even asked a few healers, but no one had seen him. He was just about to give up and go back to Panther and see if he had returned there, when a bright light caught his eye from a room he hadn't yet been. He opened the door to the ward and walked cautiously to the last room in the back of it, just in time to see the light vanish and Sky slump into the floor.

"Sky!" He cried and ran to him. Sirius cast a few diagnostic spells and saw, to his great relieve, that he was only unconscious. Just as he was about to wake him up, a vaguely familiar voice called his name:

"Sirius?"

Sirius looked around and took in his surroundings seeing a woman with a golden hair watching at him. Sirius felt his jaw drop open as recognition dawned up on him.

"A-Alice?"

He was looking at his old school friend, who had been tortured to insanity seven years ago, and now she was calling his name perfectly sane. A movement to his right caught his eye and he saw the man next to Alice, looking at him recognition in his eyes too.

"Frank?" Sirius breathed. "What – How?" He started before he realized what had happened; Sky had used his healing ability and cured them, like he did to Remus. Sirius noticed Sky stirring on his lap holding his head.

"Sky? You okay?"

"Padfoot?" Sky mumbled. "'M fine just got an awful headache. What happened?"

"You overloaded your magic and…" Sirius started but cut off when he heard voices outside the room. "We need to go before any healers come in. It's better if they don't know it was you who healed them." Sirius said quickly. "Alice, Frank, I'm glad you're okay. Ask the healers what happened to you, I don't have time to explain. I'll come back later and explain everything, but now we have to go. Please don't tell about our presence here to anyone." He continued before casting a disillusionment charm on Sky and himself. The door opened and the healers entered letting them slip out of the room. Sirius and Sky walked to a deserted corridor where they could safely drop the disillusionment charm. Sirius handed Sky a headache potion before starting with his interrogation.

"What were you thinking, going off alone like that and healing Frank and Alice? You could've lost control of your magic and died or destroyed half the hospital!" He demanded. He had felt so scared seeing Sky slump lifelessly to the floor and was only now really comprehending what had happened.

"I know and I'm sorry I went off alone, but I couldn't really help it. It was just like with Moony at Christmas; I felt a pull towards them and then my healing magic just started floating from me. I just knew I could heal them and I did."

"Fine, but next time you take someone with you."

* * *

**LONGBOTTOMS RELEASED FROM THE SAINT MUNGO'S!**

**Miraculously healed Alice and Frank Longbottom were released today from the Saint Mungo's hospital for magical maladies and injuries in complete health. Last week the couple, who was tortured to insanity right after You-know-who's downfall by the notorious Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, was found miraculously healed in their room at the ward for the long-term patients. The healers had previously stated that there was no hope for them to recover from their state, but nonetheless they were found with no sign of their previous mental injuries. Even after a week's investigations there has been found no logical explanation for their unexpected recovery. The Longbottoms were eager to get out from the hospital for their son, Neville, who - -.**

Remus stopped reading the article to take a sip from his tea. He skimmed through the rest of it before folding the paper and leaving it to the table. He had been shocked and glad to hear that Sky had been able to cure Frank and Alice, though he too had scolded him for going alone. Sirius had later that evening visited them like he had promised and explained what had happened in the years they had been in a catatonic state and warned them not to trust Dumbledore, though he didn't yet tell them about Harry. Alice and Frank were coming that night to the Lux Manerium and they had planned to reveal Sky's identity to them, if they agreed to swear oaths not to reveal anything they heard to anyone. Remus, Marcus, Sirius and Sky himself had all agreed that they wouldn't risk Sky's identity's revealing to Dumbledore for anything and they knew that they couldn't trust anyone blindly, no matter how good friends they were in the past.

Remus walked to the living room and picked up a book to read while he waited for their guests to arrive. They weren't supposed to be there for an hour yet, so he had plenty of time to read. Sirius was sleeping on the loveseat and Marcus was still in the DoM doing paperwork. He had let Remus, Sky and Sirius to leave early in case the Longbottoms arrived earlier, but had had to stay himself. Sky had gotten tired of waiting around and had retired to the training room to go through his usual workout. He had said that if the Longbottoms arrived before he was done, Sirius and Remus could proceed with their plan and he would join them later. Remus thought that he didn't want once again to tell someone his life story or be reminded of it, and Remus couldn't really blame him for that.

Completely lost in his book, Remus was startled by the wards letting them know that two people had just apparated to the Manor. Sirius, who had woken up a while back, went to escort the Longbottoms inside. Remus shut his book and stood up to greet his old friends.

"Frank, Alice, it's good to see you again." Remus said smiling as they entered the living room.

"Remus!" Alice exclaimed hugging him tightly. "It's good to see you too! How have you been?"

"I've been good…as of late."

"Oh, I don't even want to imagine how hard it must have been for you all those years. But you are looking good now." Alice said gently.

"I am. I have a family now, and Sky healed me from my scars that came with my illness." Remus said exchanging a look with Sirius. The gesture didn't go unnoticed by Alice.

**(Warning: a tiny mention of wolfstar)**

"You're together then?" She asked eagerly.

"Yes, we are." Sirius said taking Remus' hand. "How did you know?"

"Oh, I've known since James and Lily's wedding. You kept stealing glances at each other whenever the other wasn't looking and Lily thought that you were secretly dating."

"Actually we weren't." Remus said. "We got together only a few months ago."

"Really? That's too bad."

**(End of wolfstar)**

"Sirius, you promised to tell us about Harry. And we of course want to meet Sky and thank him for all he's done to us." Frank said.

"Yea, I did. You better sit down." Sirius said. "Sky will join us later."

"Would you like something to drink?" Remus asked and sent a house-elf to get some tea.

"Now, before we tell you anything, we need you to swear oaths to not to reveal anything we tell you about Harry." Sirius said.

"What do you mean you need oaths?" Frank asked frowning.

"A version of an Unbreakable wows."

"Unbreakable wows?" Why would you need that?"

"We take no risks when it comes to Harry's safety. Nothing we say can reach the ears of our enemies, especially Dumbledore. If you can't accept our terms there's nothing we can tell you." Remus said smiling apologetically, but firmly.

"Fine, we'll do it. I want to know what happened to my godson." Alice said and offered his hand to Sirius.

"This is a varied version of the spell and it can be erased by the caster and the caster only." Remus said as he performed the charm first with Alice and then Frank.

"Where did you find it?" Frank asked.

"We didn't. Sky invented it." Sirius said.

"He seems to be a remarkable young man." Frank said.

"You have no idea."

"Now, like I already told you, Harry was brought to Dumbledore by Hagrid after he took him from Godric's Hollow. Dumbledore bound his magic and left him on the doorstep of Lily's muggle sister, Petunia Dursley." Sirius began.

"Why did he block his magic? And how could he leave him with Petunia? Everyone knew how much she hated both Lily and magic!" Alice said.

"Dumbledore wanted Harry to grow up without knowing about magic or who he really is. We think that he planned to make Harry his weapon against Voldemort, when he rises again. It would have been easy to make Harry trust him without a question like more than half of the population of magical Britain does; just keeping up the grandfatherly image while introducing him to a whole new world would've done the trick – especially as he wouldn't be treated that well with the Dursleys."

"So what happened? Why didn't it work?" Alice asked.

"Dumbledore underestimated the Dursleys' hatred towards magic. They abused Harry both physically and mentally. He was kept in a cupboard nearly the whole four years he spent with them, only taking him out for the beatings. He practically lived with dry bread and water. Harry didn't know even his own name before he met Marcus." Sirius said grimly.

"When Harry was five, the Dursleys went too far and beat him to half dead. They dumped him to the streets of London, from where he was found by a few street kids. Harry lived with them for a year before there was a fire caused by a fiendfyre in the shack they lived. Harry lost his second true family he ever had that night and was once again the only survivor. Marcus found him and brought him with him." Remus continued.

"It took a lot of work and patience from Marcus to get Harry to trust him. He had to teach Harry everything from basic reading and writing to magical world. He removed all the blocks from him and it turned out that Harry was a lord-level wizard and had a photographic memory, which let him remember everything from the time he was born to this day in detail. It was not really a good thing since he had very few happy memories with him. Marcus had to help him through all that, and teach him Occlumency so that he could handle all the memories, emotions and thoughts without going insane, and teach him to control his lord-level power, so that he wouldn't hurt anyone. It was a long process but they both got through it and Harry has left his past behind him. He went even as far as to abandon his name as Harry Potter for good, and is now known as Sky." Sirius finished.

"You mean… Sky is our Harry?" Alice said wiping the tears from her eyes that had formed during the story.

"Yes, he is."

"Can we meet him?"

"You can. He's upstairs in the training room. But I need to warn you that he won't be what you imagine him to be. He's not going to be that little boy you may remember him to be. He's far more mature than you can ever imagine. And try not to mother him too much Alice, it makes him uncomfortable." Sirius said as they started walking up the stairs. "We may need to wait for him to finish his training before we can enter, but it shouldn't take long when he feels us waiting for him."

They walked through the corridor to the last room and Sirius opened the door. They saw Sky practicing with his katana against thirty dummies while being blindfolded. He was morphed into one of his favorite looks; black messy hair with long fringe that covered his right eye, emerald green eyes and a seventeen-year-olds body. The look was almost his natural appearance, only with older body and without the scar. He looked a lot like his father, but didn't have glasses.

Sky flashed his sword quickly like a lightning killing his enemies one by one until they were all dead. It was really amazing how he could use other senses to defeat his enemies, when he could not see them. Sky banished the dummies from the floor and dropped the safety wards around the room allowing them to enter. He morphed back to his eight-year old body while wiping his sweaty face to the towel. Sirius conjured him a bottle of water and threw it to him.

"Thanks, Padfoot." Sky said.

"Sky, this is Alice and Frank Longbottom." Remus said trying to lighten the awkward tension in the room.

"Nice to meet you." Sky said.

"We wanted to thank you for healing us, Har… err Sky." Frank said.

"You're welcome. You accepted the oaths then?"

"Yes, we did. We wanted to know what happened to our friends' son and my godson." Alice said.

Sky just nodded.

"Why don't we get back to downstairs and you can get to know each other better." Remus said.

"Works for me" Sky said. "I'll just take a quick shower first. Are you going to stay for dinner?"

"We would be glad to."

Sky gathered his things and made his way towards the door.

"Oh, Remus, can you feed Dexter a few grapes? He's been whining the whole day and I promised to let him have a few if he lets me train in peace." He said.

"Of course, give him to me and I'll feed him. Why's he so antsy today?"

"You know what he's like when it's _that_ time of the year." Sky said as he untangled a furiously hissing Dexter from around his left wrist where he had been residing, and handing him to Sirius before walking out of the room.

"He's a lord-level wizard, Metamorphmagus, has healing powers and on top of that is a Parselmouth?" Frank asked incredulously.

"Frank, mate, you don't know the half of it." Sirius grinned putting an arm around his shoulder and leading him out of the door.

"He's not serious, is he?"

"'M afraid so." Remus said. "But don't worry, you'll get used to it in time."

* * *

Sky took a quick shower and changed his clothes to clean ones, before joining the others downstairs. He hoped they would get past the awkwardness and that Alice and Frank wouldn't see him just as an abused child, but as the confident young man he was. He walked to the dining room, where the others were waiting for him. Sky could see Dexter curled on the table looking very pleased. _'Remus must've fed him the grapes.'_

"Where's Marcus? He's not still at work is he?" Sky asked as he sat down next to Sirius.

"He is; he said he had to do some paperwork." Remus said.

"He works too much." Sky muttered. "Shadow!" He called and the black phoenix flashed onto his arm. "Go get Marcus; he can do more paperwork tomorrow. If he refuses you may annoy him until he agrees."

Shadow chirped in agreement and flashed away.

"Was that a shadow phoenix?" Frank asked in wonder.

"Yea, her name's Shadow."

"They're really rare aren't they?"

"Yea, I think there are only five of them left. I met her at the House of Phoenix, in Phoenix, where Marcus brought me to recover after he found me. Shadow has helped me through many trials." Sky said fondly.

"It's very uncommon to have a phoenix as a familiar, let alone a shadow phoenix. I've never heard anyone having one. The only one I know to have a phoenix is Dumbledore."

"Phoenixes choose their humans themselves." Sky shrugged. "Shadow decided to stay with me. And poor Fawkes is stuck with old Dumbles." Sky couldn't really keep the anger out of his voice as he spoke about Dumbledore – he would have to work on that, as it would draw attention to him if it happened in public.

Alice shot an angry look at Frank for mentioning Dumbledore and Sky had to conceal a groan. Did she really think that he couldn't bear to hear Dumbledore's name?

"Are you going to go to school here or abroad or getting homeschooled…?" Alice asked carefully.

"Huh?"

"I mean, with Dumbledore being the headmaster at Hogwarts, so…"

"You didn't tell them?" Sky asked raising an eyebrow at Sirius and Remus.

"We didn't get there yet…" Remus said.

"Tell us what?" Alice asked.

"I'm already done with school. I passed my OWLs and NEWTs a year or so ago. Straight O's in every possible subject." Sky explained casually.

"What's this Sky? Bragging here about your school certificate to our guests? Haven't I raised you better than that?" Marcus asked flashing to the room with Shadow. "And tell Shadow to stop bothering me, I'm home already."

"I was just telling them how good teacher you were. And it's not my fault she's bothering you, you brought it upon yourself by working too much." Sky countered.

"It's good to see you Frank, Alice." Marcus greeted them, though received no response as they were both staring at Sky incredulously, their mouths hanging open.

"I think you broke them, Prongslet." Sirius said waving a hand in front of their faces.

"Oh, you mean like Marcus broke you at the monastery in Japan, when he told you about Dexter." Sky smirked.

"That was just plain mean." Sirius shuddered. "He knew I was scared of snakes."

The group laughed and by this time Frank and Alice had gotten over their shock. They chatted for a while of things that had happened while they were gone and Neville's adapting to having his parent's back, but by dessert the conversation once again took a more serious turn.

"Can't we tell Neville that Sky is really Harry? They are god-brothers after all." Alice asked.

"No, unfortunately you can't." Sky said. "It's too easy for a Legilimens like Dumbledore to get it from his head and it's too dangerous for him to swear an oath."

"Why?" Frank asked confused.

"Wizard's magic settles down when they turn eleven, which is why one can't own a wand before or start their magical education. A wizard's like Neville's magic is very unpredictable at the moment and may react badly to an oath. It might make him lose his magic or even kill him if we try. Nonetheless he already knows me as Sky." Sky explained.

"What do you mean he knows you already?" Frank asked.

"I met him a year or so ago in Diagon alley. His grandmother was shopping at Madam Malkin's and he had to wait for her. He was really bored and looked like he could use someone to talk to so I did. He told me how your mother was always comparing him to you and how he hadn't done any accidental magic yet and people were saying he was a squib." Sky said.

"It stuck odd to me as I could feel his magic, so I looked closer and saw that his core was stained by dark strings that kept his magic from acting normal. I told him about them and asked if he could meet me the next day so that I could help him. The next day I went to your manor and erased the strings of him. It appears that he too was held under the Cruciatus, but his magic protected his sanity and changed its effects to the strings." Sky finished.

Alice lunged at him sobbing and whispering 'thank you' over and over again, before Frank saved Sky from her and thanked him too. After that the Longbottoms left the manor with promises to visit again and take Neville with them the next time.

Sky slumped to the couch relieved that the first visit was over and glad to get rid of Alice's pitying and motherly glances at him.

"Really, are all women like that?" He asked from the other occupants in the room.

"Like what?" Remus asked.

"I don't know… motherly and… emotional… It's making me uncomfortable." Sky said.

"You could say that, but I think it's more like mothers." Sirius said smirking from next to Remus. "At least Lily was and your grandma."

"Well, at least there's one woman you can count on that will never be motherly towards you." Marcus stated coming from the kitchen.

"Who?"

"Tricia." He smirked.

"That's true." Sky said shivering lightly. "Just imagine your mother being a coldhearted assassin."

"She gives me the creeps." Sirius said.

"Yeah. I dare you to go and hug her tomorrow." Sky smirked at Sirius.

"No way, she'd kill me if I did."

"Nah, only beat you to a pulp."

* * *

**A/N: I'm sorry if this chapter came out a bit rushed or confusing, but I was running out of ideas and the Part One was only supposed to concentrate on some background info of the characters and Sky's childhood. The next chapter will start the Part Two where won't be any time jumps like the First one had and one could say that we get to the point.**

**Please review and tell me what you thought of the chapter and the Part One. Thanks.**

**- Dalnim**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thanks for reviews! Here's the 10th chapter of Sky and the start of the Part Two. We will have a little peek inside of Dumbles' head and there will probably be his reactions to the events in the future. I hope you like it.**

**Answers to some questions: Blake's family name is Mallory and yes, they are pureblood. I don't know if I'll include them in this story later on...**

**As for why Dumbledore didn't know Harry wasn't with the Dursleys anymore - there were no wards around the house. The only thing he did was that he sent Mrs. Figg to observe them with an order to let him know if something happens, and why she didn't will be explained in later chapters.**

**And why Dumbles didn't notice that Harry's name wasn't in Hogwarts books anymore - Well, he doesn't exactly pay attention to them. Hogwarts has self-updating quills that take care of any changes and writes the letters to the students.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

"Talking"

_'Thoughts'_

_Letter writing_

* * *

**PART TWO**

**August, 1991**

"Shade! Marcus wants to see you. He's in his office."

Sky told Silver to continue his training on his own and left for Marcus' office. He knocked on the door and stepped in.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Ah, Sky. Yes, take a seat." Marcus said looking up from his paperwork and gestured towards the chair in front of his desk. "We have a change of plans. I have just received information from Hogwarts, that Dumbledore is setting a trap."

"A trap? What kind of trap? Sky asked.

"He has convinced Nicholas Flamel that the Philosopher's Stone is in danger and that the safest place for it is Hogwarts." Marcus said.

"And he plans to lure Voldemort to Hogwarts with it? That's just brilliant; he's even crazier than I had hoped for. And now you need me to go to Hogwarts four years early." Sky grimaced. He was already dreading the boring first-year lessons where they tried to transfigure a match into a needle. He had completed his OWLs and NEWTs when he was eight-years old – if one didn't count the years he spent in the past via time turner. It was already bad enough that he had promised to go there for his fifth year and now this! He was doomed to suffer the torture of boring lessons four years early.

"I know we agreed that you didn't have to go there until your fifth year when our current undercover agent graduates, but we need the best for this one and that happens to be you. We can't let Voldemort access the Stone."

"Fine, I'll go and hate every minute of it." Sky grumbled. "So who are you going to send to the mission in October in my place? I need to hand over the data to the new group leader."

"Well, I was thinking of sending Silver. Do you think he's up for it?"

"He has the skills, but lacks experience." Sky said nodding thoughtfully. "I'll send him for a few mock missions and include him more on the leadership part on the missions we go to before I leave. He'll be ready by October."

Sky had taken Silver under his wing from the day one and had trained him nonstop since then. It was about time he sent him to the field as a team leader. Silver reminded Sky of himself with his will to learn that made him different from the other trainees and even agents, which is why Sky had started to train him separately from the others.

"Good, now we just need to make up a new identity for you. I need to arrange the paperwork before we enroll you, in case Dumbledore makes a background check. Any preferences?" Marcus asked eyes twinkling.

"Ray Evans, born in America moved to Wales few years ago. Half-blood; mother was a muggle, who died few years ago, and a father, Matt Evans, who works in Gringotts as a curse breaker. Ryan is quiet, not very social and barely average wizard. He has been blinded by birth but can manage through normal daily routine with the help of magic." Sky said.

"You've really thought about this, haven't you? Nice job with the father's job; goblins never reveal information of their workers – not even for their colleagues, so Bill Weasley won't be a problem… What's with the blindness?" Marcus mused.

"Actually I just made that up, and the blindness is so that they will underestimate my abilities and I can sleep in class. It's also a good way of observation; nobody pays any attention to blind people and acts naturally without realizing that he or she is being watched. And I'm going to continue my training at night so I got to sleep at some time. Plus I already know everything they're going to teach, so I won't be missing really anything if I sleep in class."

"I've trained you too well." Marcus said shaking his head fondly. "So who are we going to have play Matt Evans, when needed for public appearances?"

"You mean you won't do it?" Sky asked.

"What?"

"Well, I just – I thought you would be my father as Dumbledore and the teachers know Sirius and Remus, and I don't think they can cast glamours strong enough to fool Dumbledore, and you're more like a father to me as I regard them more like uncles, and it would be more natural for me to call you dad than someone else that I don't know and you're already my guardian and…"

"Sky! You're rambling."

"Sorry." He mumbled embarrassed. He knew he was rambling, but he couldn't help it. Affairs regarding parents had always got into him as he had so mixed feelings about his own. When he was younger, he was bitter and angry when he thought about them. He had thought that the Dursleys were his parents, but then he had met Marcus, who had told him about his real parents and removed the block after which he could remember them. The most of his bitterness had vanished or moved towards Voldemort and Dumbledore, but not all of it. That was also one of the reasons that he claimed that Harry Potter was dead and that he would not be called by that name.

"You're right; it would be most natural for me to be your father. I have fooled Dumbledore before and I can fool him again."

"When are you going to enroll me to Hogwarts?" Sky asked having composed himself after his embarrassment.

"I shall write a letter to old Dumbles and arrange. It will take only few well-placed compliments to get you in." Marcus smirked. "You should take time to check your Occlumency shields and create Ray his past."

"I'll get to that tomorrow. Is there anything else?" Sky asked preparing to leave.

"No, you can go."

Sky stood and left for the door.

"Oh, one thing." Marcus said before he reached the door. "Even though you're officially on a mission, try to enjoy the last of your childhood; make friends, have fun and enjoy Hogwarts. It's really a place worth knowing regardless of its lousy headmaster."

"Sure, I'll try, but you'll tell Frank and Alice that I'm leaving." Sky said and left the room with a smirk on his face.

* * *

Marcus sighed as Sky closed the door; it was going to be a long day. Frank and Alice, who had entered the Unspeakable training after their recovery, had never really accepted that, though he was only eleven-years-old, Sky wasn't a child and hadn't really been since he was 15-months-old. In some things, like his education, he was still their friends' little boy to them. They surely would argue that Sky should go to Hogwarts as a normal student and not as an Unspeakable agent. Somehow they always managed to forget that Sky had in fact already completed his magical education and wouldn't really have to go, if he didn't want to. Nevertheless he had agreed to go there for his fifth year to replace the current agents among students, but now he had to go there for his first year.

Sky was the youngest agent ever in the troops of Unspeakables. He had started his training when he was six and had completed it in just two years – if one didn't count the two years they had been in the past. Never before, had anyone under fourteen-year old been accepted to the program. Even the spies among Hogwarts students were approached at the age of fourteen or fifteen and not any younger. But then again Sky had always been different.

Marcus himself still wished he could give Sky his lost childhood back, but he had known the moment he met him, that he had lost his innocence long time ago, and that it was impossible to get it back. That was the main reason he had taken Sky as an apprentice. He had seen the maturity in his eyes that should never show in the face of a six-year-old child. Marcus had wanted to teach him to survive and live in a hard world he had been born into. He'd also hoped that he could show him how to trust and love again, and now he felt like he had succeeded at least at some level. Though it had taken a long time, Sky trusted the people around him and wasn't tense and suspicious every time he met a new adult. Marcus thought that it was mostly due to Sirius, Remus, Alice, Frank and team Five.

Marcus had also formed a close bond with him, that was somewhere between mentor and a father. He regarded Sky in many ways as a son he never had, but didn't want to replace James Potter as his father, or Sky to think that he was some kind of replacement for Marcus' daughter and wife, who had died in the First War. Even though Sky didn't want to be called by his real name and always claimed that Harry Potter was dead, Marcus knew that he cherished the memories he had of his real parents that had appeared when all blocks were removed from him. Letting Sirius and Remus call him Harry in private told as much.

Marcus was glad that Sky regarded him as a father figure of some kind, but knew better than to push him about it. Parents had always been a difficult issue for Sky to speak and Marcus had learned along the years he had spent with him, that Sky carried some kind of bitterness towards his parents with him. He also knew that it was a matter that no one else could solve, but Sky himself.

Marcus was pulled out of his thoughts by a firm knock on his door. _'Time to face the matters at hand'_ he sighed and prepared himself to face the storm as he called the duo of Longbottoms in.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was having a good day. He had convinced his old friend Nicholas Flamel that Voldemort was after the Philosopher's Stone and that the safest place for it was Hogwarts. Nicholas didn't have to know about the trap he had set for Voldemort. And the students would be quite safe; after all, it was for the Greater Good!

His trap was set, and he was sure that Voldemort would fall for it. It was also the first test for Harry Potter who was arriving for his first year, and he was looking forward to seeing how the boy had turned out. If his plan had succeeded, he would be shy and humble – perfect weapon for him to mold.

Albus was brought out of his musings by an owl that knocked his window. He took the letter from it and opened it as the owl flew to Fawkes' perch to wait for response.

_Dear Headmaster Dumbledore,_

_My son Ray and I have moved to Wales few years ago, after the death of my wife and now has come a time when my son must receive his magical education. I am well aware of the fact that most Welsh attend the local school here, but I wish the best kind of education for my son and I've heard that Hogwarts is the best school around here. My son has been suffering from blindness since birth, but I would like him to attend Hogwarts and receive its comprehensive tutelage, if You would be so kind to take him in. You need not worry about my son's ability to keep up with classes, for he has his ways to get by without his eyesight._

_Sincerely,_

_Matt Evans_

_Head Curse-breaker, Gringotts_

Albus smiled as he finished reading the letter. Hogwarts' reputation had increased a lot on his time as a Headmaster and taking in a blind child would be a good chance to increase it some more. He scribbled a short agreement and sent it off along with the Hogwarts acceptance letter.

His thoughts drifted back to Harry as he thought who to send, to explain him more about the Wizarding World and take him his letter. He spent a long time pondering, but decided then that Hagrid would be the best candidate for the job. _'Hagrid is the one who took him there; he should be the one to bring him back. This is also perfect chance to give Harry his first clue…I must write the goblins a letter about the Stone.' _With a smile on his face, he put a lemon drop into his mouth and started writing.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review and tell me what you think. **

**I was wondering... do you guys want me to write Dumbledore evil or good (sees the error in his way) or somewhere between, like with good intentions, but wrong means? Tell me your opinion, please. Thanks.**

**Next Chapter: Hogwarts**

**- Dalnim**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews! There has been very mixed up feelings of how I should write Dumbledore, though I think most of you want him to be Evil. I'm not quite sure how to write him yet, but I'm kinda leaning towards the senile and Evil. I think he might have been good once upon a time, but has his priorities messed up at his old age and he no longer knows what is right as he's so into his 'Greater Good'. Oh well, I guess we'll see how he turns out in the future chapters.**

**Now, however Agent Shade goes on to his next mission: Hogwarts. Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling**

_'Thoughts'_

"Talking"

_"Letter"_

* * *

"Headmaster!" Hagrid's voice boomed from the staircase.

"Hagrid, my dear boy." Dumbledore said his eyes twinkling as the half-giant entered his office. "I trust your mission went well and young Harry has received his Hogwarts letter."

"Harry is gone, Headmaster. I couldn' give 'im his letter." Hagrid said.

"Gone?" Dumbledore asked raising his eyebrows. "What do you mean gone?"

"He wasn' there. The Dursleys said he ain't livin' there anymore."

"But he must be there! Where would he be if not there? I'm sure you're mistaken, Hagrid." Dumbledore insisted. There was no way the Dursleys wouldn't have taken him in. The letter had enough compulsion charms and a few hatred charms for them to be forced to take the boy in and treat him like Dumbledore wanted him to be treated. Besides, Mrs. Figg would have told him if the boy had disappeared. "Now, Hagrid, tell me everything."

"I wen' there an' knocked on the door an' the hors'-like woman open'd it, so I asked fer Harry. She said he wasn' there and slamm'd the door on me face. Then I came back here." Hagrid explained.

"But that doesn't mean Harry doesn't live there anymore. He just must have been out." Dumbledore said jovially.

"Err…Righ'." Hagrid said sheepishly, scratching his bushy mane of a hair. "'M sorry Headmaster."

"It's quite alright, my boy. Now, give me young Harry's letter and I will deliver it to him personally. I trust you remember your other mission." Dumbledore said. He thought it was better to take care of the boy's letter himself, since it seemed the Dursleys turned out to be difficult.

"Righ', 'm on it." Hagrid said and left the office.

Dumbledore sighed as he leaned back on his chair. His carefully created plan to give the boy his first clue of the Stone and sow the seeds of prejudice into him had just crumbled right in front of him. That's what you get for putting a half-giant to do your business.

He was also very annoyed of how difficult the Potter boy was even before he had met him again. First there was no letter for him among the Hogwarts' self-updating Register, which Dumbledore found very weird, until he remembered the blocks he put on the boy's magic and abilities. He had probably made them too strong and the Register couldn't detect him, but nevertheless Dumbledore had had to listen to Minerva's worried rant and in the end write the letter himself. And now another problem – the Dursleys.

Oh well, he just had to go and exchange a few well-chosen words with Petunia and everything would be back in the right track. Now he only needed to figure out how to make the boy hate Slytherins and get curious about the Stone.

Putting a lemon drop in his mouth, Dumbledore stood up and left for his destination: Number 4 Privet Drive.

* * *

Sky woke up at six am, like he did every day, but for the first time in years he didn't want to get up. It was September the 1st and he had no desire to leave his family or his trainees for ten months and go to Hogwarts to spend quality time with the Old Coot and study things he already knew. Sure it was an undercover mission, but Sky really couldn't think of it as one no matter how hard he tried. It really wasn't the same thing to infiltrate to some underground criminal gang for few months to gather information, than to infiltrate among school students to protect some stone. Fine, it's a Stone that can turn things into gold and produce life-elixir and it would be dangerous for someone like Voldemort to have it, but why in the hell would they hide it in a school full of children.

_'Damn Dumbledore! Always making my life miserable."_ Sky thought and pulled his blanket over his head. He was also pissed off at Nicholas Flamel, for letting Dumbledore hide his Stone in the school and for being his mentor. If Flamel hadn't mentored Dumbledore, he wouldn't have become 'the hope of the Light' and wouldn't be able to meddle with other people's business so easily. Sky could just get his revenge in all silence, if Dumbledore wasn't the bloody hope of the Light. But no, he was and now Sky had to endure the torture of ten months in Hogwarts watching him smile that grandfatherly smile with that damn twinkle in his eyes, without being able to wipe it off. The only good thing of going to Hogwarts that Sky could think of was its massive library.

Sky pushed the anger behind his Occlumency shields and sighed tiredly. He would have to be able to keep cool around Dumbledore and play the innocent little student role. He couldn't allow his anger or maturity show through his eyes while he was in Hogwarts, or he would draw Dumbledore's attention to himself and that wouldn't be a good thing. He would just have to use his Occlumency skills to keep his emotions in check and deal with them later when he was alone.

Sky pulled the cover tighter around himself as he heard his door open.

"Harry wake up! You're going to Hogwarts today." Sirius said nudging him up.

"Go away Sirius… I don't wanna." Sky murmured from under his cover.

"Come on, Prongslet, it's not gonna be that bad." Sirius said sitting on Sky's bed.

"Yea it is." Sky argued coming out from under his blanket. "It's gonna be a plain torture."

"I know it's going to be boring in lessons, but there's more than lessons in Hogwarts."

"Like what?"

"Quidditch and pranking for one and Neville will be there. You'll make lots of friends your own age and you can be just a normal kid for once."

"You forget that Neville won't know I'm there as I'll attend as Ray Evans and first years can't even own a broom let alone play Quidditch. Also I'm not looking forward to being a normal kid as you put it, since I'm not one and I have accepted that a long time ago. The normality is all gonna be just an act. And what comes to pulling pranks, I can't do that either as I can't draw attention to myself. There is also one thing I'll have to deal with…" Sky grumbled.

"What's that?"

"Dumbledore" Sky said gritting his teeth, the anger once again lashing out of him.

"Fine, you have me there." Sirius sighed. "But we'll see each other at Christmas; it's not that far away."

"Four months sounds like a long time for me…" Sky grumbled.

"I know" Sirius said pulling Sky into a hug. "You could pull a few pranks you know…" he said smirking after a while, eyes full of the familiar mischief. "Dumbles can't detect a metamorphmagus…"

Eyes brightening Sky smirked back at him feeling a lot better.

* * *

"You going to be okay?" Marcus asked Sky as they entered the platform 9 ¾. The platform was full of kids and parents saying goodbye to each other as the children boarded the train. Sky knew nearly everyone there by name as he had studied the backgrounds of every student and a staff member during the last few days.

"I'll be fine. Dead bored, but fine." Sky said. He felt a lot better after the discussion with Sirius in the morning as now he could at least prank Dumbledore without drawing attention to Ray Evans. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of that before.

"I'm sorry you have to do this now." Marcus said lowering his voice so that he couldn't be overheard. "If it wasn't for the Stone…"

"I know. Once again Dumbledore managed to interfere with my life… But don't worry, I won't hex him to oblivion – only prank him a few times, but nothing fatal." Sky said smirking.

"I will not receive any letters from the teachers that you have ended up in detention Ray Evans! If I do you'll be grounded for the whole summer." Marcus said sternly playing up the role of Matt Evans, though his eyes gave him away.

Sky pulled the innocent kid look and whispered: "Who said anything about Ray Evans pulling the pranks."

Marcus just smiled and shook his head. _'He must have talked with Sirius.' _More loudly Sky said: "I gotta go, the train leaves in a few minutes."

"I love you, son." Marcus said hugging him tightly and ruffling his mousy brown hair.

"I love you too, Dad." Sky said and boarded the train. He turned around to wave Marcus, as the train started moving, and saw his eyes glittering. They both knew it wasn't Ray Evans telling his dad he loved him, it was Sky.

* * *

Sky walked through the train's corridor looking for his compartment with a wide smile on his face. The day before, Shadow had flashed him to Godric's Hollow and he had visited his parents. He had decided it was time for him to go through his memories and emotions towards his parents and get over the fear and awkwardness he felt when someone showed parental feelings towards him.

Sky had sat down in front of his parents' grave and cast a few privacy charms to not to be seen or heard. For the first time he had talked about his mixed feelings towards his parents; his longing, love, anger, bitterness and the fear to let anyone too deep into his heart. He yelled, cried and laughed until he had been able to let it all go and just cherish his parents' memory in his heart.

Sky had known for a long time that Marcus thought him as a son he never had, but he had never had the courage to admit, even to himself, that he thought Marcus as a father too. The fear of getting abandoned again – a relic from the Dursleys – had always been too strong, but now he had overcome it and could let Marcus be his dad.

Sky opened the compartment where his trunk had been brought to. He saw four heads turn to look at him curiously. He adapted quickly a shy look and entered the compartment.

"Hi, can I sit here? Everywhere else is full."

"Of course! I'm Hermione Granger." A girl, with a bushy hair and rather big front teeth, said. Sky of course knew all of them from his research, but had to act like he didn't.

"Ray Evans." He said introducing himself, on purpose not holding his hand out for them to shake.

"Neville Longbottom." Neville said. He had really changed in the last few years from that shy and clumsy little boy into a confident young man. Getting his parents back had really been good for him and built up his self-esteem.

"Daphne Greengrass." The girl with a long black hair and brown eyes said. Sky remembered reading that her family had been one of the few 'Dark' families that had stayed neutral during the First War. He wondered if it had something to do with the fact that she was a half-blood witch.

The last girl, with a long blond hair, introduced herself as Hannah Abbott and soon they were surrounded by an awkward silence as all four of them held out their hands for him to shake and he pretended as to not see them to keep up his alibi.

"It's very rude not to shake people's hand when introduced, you know." Daphne said disapprovingly.

Sky smirked inwardly and countered. "It is also considered rude to offer a hand in greeting to a person, who can't see it."

"Oh." Daphne said sounding embarrassed.

"It's okay, you couldn't have known." Sky said.

"How are you going to manage in class and around the castle if you're blind?" Hannah asked curiously. "If you don't mind me asking." She added quickly.

"I don't mind." Sky said. "I use magic to get around and I have a spell that will read books to me so that only I can hear it."

"Cool."

"So are you excited to go to Hogwarts?" Sky asked and soon they were animatedly discussing their house preferences and guessing what the Sorting would be like. Sky mostly just leaned back and listened to their conversation, joining in only when someone asked him a question, though he did give them his opinion of the prejudices between the Houses and hopefully got his companions thinking.

At one point he closed his eyes and let himself wander into his mindscape. To an outsider he looked like he was sleeping, but in truth he was studying his companions behind his Occlumency shields. It was a skill he had learned from a master of Mind Arts in China. He looked like he was asleep, but really he could see through his eyelids and keep an eye on his surroundings and people around him without them knowing. It was also one of the reasons they had made up the blindness, as he could easily spy people without them noticing when they thought he couldn't see. He could also sleep in class without getting in trouble with the teacher, though he had to use a spell that alerted him if someone was speaking to him.

Sky was brought back to reality by the lady with the food cart. All of them bought something and started to eat. Neville was explaining Hermione all about the wizarding sweets and trying to get her to eat a chocolate frog. She tried to eat one, but in the end refused to eat it saying that it looked too alive, because of the charm that made it jump.

"Well, at least you get the card." Neville said. "You can start your own collection."

"Oh, I got Dumbledore!" Hermione exclaimed and showed it around to the others. Sky had to restrain himself from destroying the card. He noticed that Neville wasn't too happy to see Dumbledore either, but then again Frank and Alice had told him part of what Dumbledore had done to Harry Potter, even if he didn't know Sky was Harry.

The rest of the train ride went quickly with only one interruption when Draco Malfoy came to their compartment with his two bodyguards Crabbe and Goyle, looking for Harry Potter, who should be starting in Hogwarts too. That of course led to discussion of Harry Potter led by Hermione, who had read all about him. Sky listened amused their speculation of what Harry would be like, when he was sitting right in front of them. Sky was very happy that he had abandoned his identity as Harry Potter after listening to their conversation for a while. The worshipping was way too much for Sky and he didn't even want to think how the whole school would have treated him had he came there as Harry. Thankfully Neville didn't join in or mention that his mom was Harry Potter's godmother – the girls, especially Hermione and Hannah, didn't need any more rumors to spread.

The train stopped in the Hogsmeade's station and soon they were floating in the boats, led by the Gamekeeper Hagrid, towards Hogwarts. Everyone was staring in wonder at the huge castle that emerged in front of them, whispering compliments on how great or beautiful it looked. Sky didn't bother as he had already seen Hogwarts many times in Sirius or Remus' memories and his own visits during the summer when he had come to investigate his surroundings. There was also no point, as he wasn't supposed to see it, but instead he asked Neville Hermione to describe it to him, to keep up appearances.

Sirius and Remus had informed him all about the secret rooms and passages, and told him about the Marauders' Map that Filch had confiscated in their seventh year. Sky had searched Filch's office during one of his visits, but had seen no sign of it. He had a hunch that the Weasley twins, Fred and George, who were quite the pranksters themselves, had found it and put it to a good use – at least if he looked at their detention records of all the pranks they had pulled.

Acquiring the Marauders' Map was one of the first things Sky had to do while in Hogwarts. It was too dangerous to leave it lying around since he didn't know if the Map showed a metamorphmagus' real identity or not. The Map would also help him in keeping an eye on the staff and students, and see whether someone in the castle was after the Stone or not.

The Deputy Headmistress and the Transfiguration Professor Minerva McGonagall was waiting for them at the front door. She was a stern looking woman in a no-nonsense way, just like Sirius and Remus had described her and what Sky had seen in their memories. She was a bit of an enigma for Sky as she had been a Dumbledore loyalist for a long time and known him for years, but then again, she was fiercely protective of her students and Sky couldn't imagine her allowing Dumbledore's trap for Voldie in a school full of students. McGonagall wasn't afraid to speak her mind to Dumbledore, if she thought he was wrong.

McGonagall kept them a speech about the Houses and house loyalty, before leading them to the Great hall. Sky took a deep breath and prepared himself to seeing Dumbledore and acting like a normal kid. He let the thoughts and memories of Ray Evans that he had created during the summer, take over the front of his mind. Sky could hear Hermione behind him whispering about the Great hall's ceiling being enchanted, but she was soon silenced by McGonagall who started stating their names. Hannah was the first to be sorted and ended up in Hufflepuff. There were a few after her and then it was his turn.

"Ray Evans."

Sky walked to the stool and sat down. He was not worried that the hat would find out his real identity, as he knew that not even the Sorting hat would be able to get past his Occlumency shields. He had made sure that it couldn't get past and that he would be sorted to just the house he wanted.

_'Ray Evans… an American…hmm…There haven't been many students from there. Well, there is only one place to put you.' _HUFFLEPUFF!

Sky walked smiling widely to the Hufflepuff's table as they cheered for him and sat down next to Hannah and a girl named Susan Bones, who also had been just sorted there. The sorting continued putting Daphne to Slytherin, Hermione to Ravenclaw and Neville to Gryffindor.

As Blaise Zabini had been sorted to Slytherin and Dumbledore welcomed the students to Hogwarts with his little speech – if one could call it that – the food appeared on the tables. Everyone started eating and chatting with each other, but Sky let discreetly his eyes wander around the hall stopping at the staff's table. He started pondering about the agent among the staff members. Marcus had refused to tell him who it was saying that he wanted to know how long it would take for him to figure it out. He also said that he hadn't told the agent among the staff who Sky was, so it was interesting to see who would get it first. Marcus had given them time till Halloween to figure it out and if they hadn't he would tell them. It was also forbidden to ask from one of the informants among the student population in each house, who knew who they both were – unless it was an emergency of course.

Sky knew it had to be someone who had been there for a long time and was constantly in touch with the students, which erased Madam Pince, Filch, Madam Pomfrey, Madam Hooch, Trelawney, Babbling and Burbage right away from the list. Also the COMC teacher Kettleburn was out, as he rarely interacted with students outside of class. Even the Gamekeeper Hagrid spend more time with the students than he did, though he too was unqualified to be an unspeakable agent – the man babbled everything he knew after just a few glass of Firewhiskey and owed too much to Dumbledore for letting him stay at Hogwarts after his expulsion, to spy on him.

That left only Sinistra, Snape, Flitwick, McGonagall, Quirrell, Sprout and Vector. Snape was out as he too owed too much to Dumbledore and the DoM would never hire a Death eater no matter how changed he was. Sky also doubted that McGonagall was an agent being so close to Dumbledore, and Vector didn't have that many students in her class as Arithmancy wasn't a core subject. So the agent had to be Sinistra, Flitwick, Sprout or Quirrell, who all were in a perfect position to keep an eye both on staff and all the students. Sky made a resolve to watch their movements during their classes and free time.

Sky finished his dessert and watched the dishes disappear only half listening Dumbledore's speech about the school's rules and warnings about the Forbidden forest and the third-floor corridor, where the Stone was hidden.

_'Typical Dumbledore caring for his students' safety; first he hides a powerful magical artifact in school and then tells the students to keep out of where it's hidden if they don't want to face a painful death, while smiling that damn grandfatherly smile – a way to make them to take him seriously. I just wonder how many students are going to get killed before the year is over.' _Sky thought as he walked after the prefects to the Hufflepuff's common room.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was seething. He was not having a good day – no, a good month. Yes, it had been a whole month since he had found out that Harry Potter was no longer living with the Dursleys and that in fact, he hadn't been living there for years.

He had run away when he was five, that's what the Dursleys had told him – with a little persuasion – when he visited them, demanding answers. And that was _six_ bloody_ years _ago! How in the Merlin's name could he now find the boy? He could be anywhere! He could be living in the streets, be adopted into a new family with a new name, he could be dead! But no, Dumbledore wouldn't accept that, the boy couldn't be dead, he needed to live with the prophecy and all. Dumbledore had plans for him… Yes he couldn't be dead… All he had to do was to find him.

Dumbledore paced back and forth in his office deep in thought, thinking where the boy could be. He decided to check all the nearby orphanages, send someone to the streets and ask the muggle police if they knew anything about the boy… Yes, he had to be alive somewhere…Unless…

Suddenly a horrible thought appeared in his head: Sirius Black. The boy's godfather had been released not five years ago and disappeared. Could it be that he had found the boy and taken him with him? That would not be good. That would not be good at all. Dumbledore needed the boy as naïve and humble, ready to be molded, but if he was with Black, he wouldn't be so accepting of his grandfatherly act. Black had always been intelligent and surely knew by now that Dumbledore had sent him to Azkaban on purpose, knowing that he was innocent. That was why he had not come to him yet. Yes, Black would surely corrupt the boy against him and that wasn't good at all. He needed to send someone to check on Black and find out where he was and if the boy was with him.

_'Yes, I will get the boy back and if he has been corrupted by Black, a little mind-tampering will hurt no-one… it's for the Greater Good, after all.'_

* * *

It was the first weekend of the school year and Sky was already bored to death – and that was saying something as they had only been there for two days. He had already figured out the identity of the agent among the staff, retrieved the Marauders' Map and pulled his first prank. There was nothing interesting going on and he wanted some puzzle to solve or a mission to plan, but there was nothing he could think of. Everyone around him was doing homework or something, but Sky didn't bother as he only had to write an essay that got him an acceptable. It was really quite challenging to write the assignments to be barely acceptable or a little under it, when he already knew everything, but he had to live up to his image as Ray Evans, who was to become a barely average wizard. The only subject, where he didn't plan to fail on purpose was Potions as it was his passion and he really didn't know how to make a potion wrong as he was a natural brewer.

Sky shifted his position on the armchair and closed his eyes. He thought back to his first classes where he had spent the whole time watching the teachers and trying to figure out who was the agent. Sprout was friendly and helpful to all and got along very well with the students and Sinistra was strict and very caught up in her own subject. Flitwick was a natural teacher, very enthusiastic about his own subject and could make the class interesting and fun even for Sky who already knew everything in the curriculum.

The last one on the list was Quirrell, who really interested Sky. He seemed to be afraid even his own shadow and was always stuttering awfully lot, which made it very hard for the students to understand anything he said. There was also a very awful smell around the turban he always wore.

After the first day's classes were over Sky was sure that Flitwick was the undercover agent among the staff members. He was confident and carried himself like many of the senior agents did. Even though he was small he had the respect of the students and got their attention when he needed without much of a fuss, which was the quality that Sprout lacked. Flitwick was approachable and wasn't so teacher-like as the others, so the students felt they could go to him if there was something in their mind, which was a perfect way for gathering information. He was fair to all houses and didn't favor his Ravens over the others, like the other Head of Houses did. He was also friendly with everyone in the staff and was often asked for help by his colleagues if they needed it.

Sky had left him a brief message letting him know that he had found him out. He had also written to Marcus who had once again been amazed to know that it only took him a day to find Flitwick out. They had agreed to wait for Flitwick to find out Sky's fake identity himself just to see how long it would take him.

Later that day, Sky had shadowed into the Gryffindor tower and snuck into the dorm of the third year boys. He had located the Marauders' Map and taken it leaving a short note to notify the Weasley twins of it. Fortunately the Map couldn't identify a metamorphmagus and showed Sky as Ray Evans, so he didn't have to be worried about the twins seeing him as Harry Potter on the Map. Sky had seen the twins entering the Gryffindor common room and making their way up to their dorm. He hid himself in the shadows of the room and waited. He wanted to see their reaction to his little note and to the fact that they would have to continue their pranking without it.

"— and then we could enchant a bottle of shampoo and a brush to chase around Snape and wash his hair." George said as they entered.

"Yea that would be fun." Fred said. "We need to find a spell for that, though. Where did you put the Map?"

"It should be under my mattress." George said looking for it. "What's this?" He asked revealing the note that Sky had just left there.

"What does it say?"

_"Dear Messrs' Gred and Forge,_

_As Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers yourself, _

_You know the words to be said." _George read. "What? What does it mean the words to be said?"

"Give me that." Fred said and took the parchment. "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."

The writing in the parchment vanished only to be replaced by a new writing.

_"Congratulations! _

_You are qualified to be considered as the successors of the Marauders. I have greatly enjoyed your pranks, but it is time for you to take the next step in the fine art of pranking; pranking without getting caught. It is a great achievement to have a detention records like yours, but the best thing that comes with pranking is to pull a prank and not get punished by it. Everyone will know it was you, but as they have no proof, they cannot punish you._

_I have retrieved the Marauder's greatest aid the Marauder's Map to myself as it holds a great sentimental value for me. If you will be successful in your quest to become true Marauders I shall make the loss of the Map up to you. I would suggest you expand your targets from Snape and the Slytherins to other houses and teachers. With great pranks come __Great__ targets._

_Mischief Managed,_

_Shade, _

_Son of Prongs"_

Fred finished reading the letter aloud and they were both staring at it in wonder. "Is he suggesting what I think he's suggesting?" He asked.

"I think he is."

"So he's really…"

"Telling us…"

"To prank…"

"Dumbledore."

"What say you Gred, shall we accept the challenge?"

"Well, Forge, I say challenge accepted." And just as he said the words the paper caught fire and destroyed it leaving no trace of the note.

Sky shadowed back to his own common room with a smirk on his face. _'Dumbledore won't know what hit him."_

The next morning the Great hall had burst out laughing at breakfast as all the teachers' clothes and hair had turned into different colors; of which most noticeable were Snape's pink tutu and neon yellow hair and Dumbledore in a dress that looked like cream cake. Snape also had a rain cloud over his head wetting him and the shampoo bottle and a brush washing his hair, and Dumbledore was yelled by group of lemon drops that were lecturing him every time he tried to eat one.

All four houses, even most Slytherins, led by the Weasley twins started clapping and cheering. Snape had tried to get the twins punished for the prank, but both of them had sworn that it wasn't them and without any proof they couldn't be punished. None of the teachers had been able to end the prank and it had lasted full twenty-four hours. Sky had sent the Weasley twins another note challenging them to top his prank, which they had accepted enthusiastically. It was the beginning of Hogwarts' first prank war.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading. The prank with the lemon drops is not my invention, but I don't remember where I read something similar, so I can't give credit to anyone.**

**Anyway, please review and tell me what you think.**

**- Dalnim**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Over hundred reviews! Thank you so much people, you comments/suggestions/questions are greatly apprecitated and they encourage me to write. Here's the next chapter, I hope you like it. **

**Thank you for**** Shadeirion**** for his/her suggestion of what to do with Dumbledore. I may use it or something similar, if I can pull it off.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

_'Thoughts'_

"Talking"

* * *

t had been two months since the beginning of Hogwarts' first prank war and the whole school was on their guard. It was Halloween and something huge was bound to happen. Sky had gotten over his boredom and buried himself in pranking, training, experimenting with potions and reading through the school's massive library. He had decided to continue his ongoing quest to find a cure for Lycanthropy and was using a lot of his time on researching and brewing.

He had fallen into a routine where he trained and brewed at night and slept in all classes but Flitwick and Snape's. In Flitwick's classes he stayed awake as Flitwick made everything so fun and interesting, and in Snape's classes only because he loved brewing. In his free time he usually read through the library or planned his next pranks, while keeping an eye on things in the castle.

Flitwick still hadn't found out that Sky was the new agent among the students and today was the day Sky would reveal himself to him. He was looking forward to have someone to discuss things and maybe Flitwick would give him something to do when he was bored.

Sky entered the Great Hall with other Hufflepuffs for dinner, dressed up in a costume as was requested. He had chosen to be a ninja and was carrying his katana and throwing stars with him, which of course were charmed to look like fake.

The Great hall was decorated with pumpkins and spider webs and the school's ghosts were all floating around the room. Sky noticed that many of the students, mostly the older ones and Slytherins hadn't bothered to dress up, even though it was requested by the staff. He concealed a smirk as he thought of his coming prank for those who had refused to dress up.

Sky sat down with the rest of his house and started eating. Only ten minutes after the beginning of the dinner a shriek was heard from a fourth year Slytherin, who hadn't bothered to dress up. Her hair had turned to every possible color and looked like a rainbow and her clothes were transformed to a colorful sheet – a very much like the pillowcase the house elves wore. One by one all the students and Snape who hadn't dressed up had a colorful hair and clothes or were dressed up as something embarrassing. Their voices were also changed to very high-pitched.

The whole hall burst out laughing and started cheering. Dumbledore, who was dressed as Merlin tried to calm them down, but was interrupted by Quirrell, who ran into the hall looking frantic.

"Troll, in the dungeons! Thought you ought to know." Quirrell said and fainted on the floor – forwards. The student's cheering turned to screams of horror. _'Who the hell faints forwards?' _Sky thought narrowing his eyes, but had no time to start pondering Quirrell's oddness – he needed to find the troll and make sure that no one would get to the Stone.

Sky started walking quickly after the other students, who were following the prefects back to their common rooms as Dumbledore instructed. _'Yes, tell your students to go back to their common rooms, it's a good thing that Slytherins' common room isn't in the dungeons.'_

"Slytherins gather up in the library! It's too dangerous to go to the dungeons." Sky yelled at them disguising his voice, before he shadowed himself into an empty classroom and pulled out the Map.

"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good" he murmured and opened the Map. He could see the students returning to their common rooms – except for the Slytherins who went to the library – and all the teachers, but Dumbledore and Snape, hurrying to the dungeons. Sky cursed out loud as he saw the troll in a corridor just outside the girls' bathroom, where a Ravenclaw first year, Hermione Granger, whom Sky had shared a compartment with, was.

Sky quickly shadowed into the bathroom and cast a disillusionment charm on himself. He saw the troll enter the bathroom and Hermione started screaming in horror. Sky cast a quick wandless stunner towards the girl and then jumped on the trolls' back. He used one of his martial arts techniques – which usually were used to break tile walls in competitions – to break the trolls' skull and it fell to the floor dead, its club falling from its hand. Sky took Hermione's wand and cast the Wingardium Leviosa spell to cover up his tracks. He picked up the Map again and saw Snape come from forbidden third floor corridor. _'I wonder what he was doing in there…Gotta keep a closer eye on him too.'_

Sky hid himself in the shadows as the four teachers McGonagall, Flitwick, Snape and Quirrell entered the bathroom.

"Oh my, is it dead?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes, its skull has split in two." Snape said sneering as he checked the troll. Sky couldn't help but notice the blood and a limb on his leg as he walked. _'Must've tried to get past Fluffy.'_

"What could've done that?" McGonagall wondered.

"T-t-here i-is a g-girl." Quirrell stuttered pointing at the unconscious form of Hermione.

"Merlin's beard, it's Miss Granger!" McGonagall exclaimed and hurried to her. "Thank Merlin, she's only unconscious. Enervate."

Hermione stirred and opened her eyes looking around with a confused look on her face.

"Miss Granger? How are you feeling?" McGonagall asked.

"Pr-professor McGonagall? I'm fine, just a little dizzy. What happened?"

"We were hoping you could tell us. We found you here unconscious with a dead troll." Flitwick said gently.

"I-I don't know, I can't remember." Hermione said.

"What is the last thing you remember, Miss Granger?" McGonagall asked.

"I didn't want to go to the feast because one of my classmates said something that made me upset, so I came here. I don't know how long I had been here when that troll entered the room. I remember starting to scream and then everything went black." She said.

"Well, that doesn't explain what happened to the troll." McGonagall said. "Are you sure you don't remember anything else, Miss Granger?"

"Yes, that's it."

"Severus?" McGonagall asked turning to face Snape who had been investigating the troll.

"It would seem that the troll was killed with its own club. The club was levitated above it and dropped to its head, which cracked the skull. The only magical signature I can find belongs to Miss Granger." Snape said sneering before he took Hermione's wand and muttered "Prior Incantato"

"As I thought, the last spell performed was Wingardium Leviosa."

"Y-You mean I killed the t-troll?" Hermione asked horrified.

"Yes."

"Well, that's it then." McGonagall said. "It's better if I take Miss Granger to the Hospital Wing. You shall not be punished, Miss Granger, as you did it on self-defense, but I advise you not to wander around the castle alone." She continued sternly and led her out of the bathroom.

Sky shadowed out of the room to his common room to make an appearance and decided it was time for him to go and see Flitwick.

* * *

Meanwhile in Dumbledore's office, Dedalus Diggle was giving his report to Dumbledore.

"I finally tracked him down just a few hours ago and I can tell you that Black doesn't know where the boy is. Hell the man has been looking for him since he got out of Azkaban." Diggle said. "He was in some Muggle tavern dressed in rags, drinking himself silly, probably trying to forget what day today is. Lad needs to get over his guilt and do something productive. He was a good Auror back then, if I remember correctly."

"Yes, yes." Dumbledore said trying to sound like he felt sorry for Sirius for being in such a bad condition. Inwardly, however, he was cheering – At last something good happened. He had been going mad for the past months with all the bad news and the pranking going on, but now everything was getting better. The boy wouldn't be corrupted by Black and Dumbledore's job would be much easier.

"We need to arrange a search for young Harry. Call the old grew apart from Remus Lupin, I have another mission for him." He said and Diggle nodded before leaving the office.

_'Yes, I can send Lupin to spy on Black… He will never betray me after everything I have done for him…"_

* * *

Sky had to wait for an hour before he was free to go and see Flitwick as the teachers were watching over them in the common rooms. Finally the teachers announced that the danger was over and the students were free to spend the last hours before the curfew out of the common room.

Sky shadowed into Flitwick's office and saw to his fortune that he was alone. He decided to have a little fun as he hadn't had a good duel since coming to Hogwarts. He waved his hand over the room and activated all the possible privacy charms that kept even the Headmaster from overpassing them, before emerging from the shadows and casting the Rictusempra charm on Flitwick. Flitwick reacted fast and dodged the spell answering it with a stunner. They danced around the office circling each other and casting spells. Sky decided that he had had his fun and ended the duel by casting the Patronus charm to deceive Flitwick and following it a stunner, which brought the professor down.

Sky walked to the professor and revived him. Flitwick recovered surprisingly quickly and was on his feet pointing his wand towards Sky.

"Who are you?"

Sky smirked letting his hood down.

"Mr. Evans what is the meaning of this?"

"My apologies agent Mars, I haven't had a good duel in a while and couldn't resist the temptation."

"You – agent Shade?"

"It is an honor to meet you." Sky said and bowed to him the Unspeakable greeting.

"Likewise." Flitwick said returning the bow. "I must admit, Ray Evans never even crossed my mind, when I tried to figure out your identity. It is a well thought disguise." He continued sounding impressed.

"Thank you. I've come to inform you of my suspicions and observations this evening regarding the troll."

"It was you who killed the troll, wasn't it? Not Miss Granger." Flitwick guessed.

"Yes, I did, but I thought it would be more convenient to not to draw attention to myself and have Dumbledore breathing down my neck as he's so busy searching for the Boy-Who-Lived." Sky said smirking.

"I quite agree. So what have you found out?"

"There is something suspicious about Quirrell. He is known for his specialty with trolls, so I find it very odd that he would come running frantic to the Headmaster as he could've dealt with it on his own. There is also the strange smell around him and the fake stutter." Sky said.

"He fakes his stutter?" Flitwick asked. "How do you know?"

"It doesn't come naturally to him and sometimes he forgets it. When someone asks something from him, it gets worse." Sky said. "I'm not sure if you noticed, but he didn't stutter at all when he announced the presence of the troll."

"I see. I will have to watch him more closely in the future." Flitwick mused. "Anything else?"

"Yes, I suggest you keep an eye on Snape too."

"Snape? Why him?"

"For one, he is a Death Eater and Voldemort is after the Stone, and secondly he tried to get past Fluffy this evening and got bitten."

"How can that be? He is one of the Stone's protectors and Dumbledore says he was a spy for him during the war."

"The Old Coot says a lot of things agent Mars. I advise you to not trust and follow him so blindly. Maybe then you will avoid being one of his pawns." Sky said. "I shall report to you, if I find something more. Goodnight."

Sky left the room leaving a thoughtful Flitwick to his musings, and shadowed to the Room of Requirement. It was time to continue his daily routine and write a letter to Marcus of his observations. _'Maybe things will start getting interesting now.'_

* * *

Back in London the months went by quickly with Sirius and Remus continuing their training. Seth, who was their principal trainer, had briefly hinted that they might be allowed to join the active agents and go on missions after the Christmas holidays, which encouraged them to train harder. Sirius and Remus were both tired of the everlasting training an hour after hour and a day after day and they were ready for some change in their lives. Of course they knew that the training would continue even after their trainee time, but the missions would bring a nice change for their routine.

They had also heard from Sky of Dumbledore's plans to track Sirius down and Sirius had conveniently fooled Diggle by pretending to be a drunken ex-convict trying to find his godson. Dumbledore had also gotten in touch with Remus and asked him not so subtly to Spy on Sirius, and Remus of course had agreed. He was to give Dumbledore monthly reports of Sirius' search and inform him right away if he found some clue on Harry's whereabouts. Sirius and Remus had gotten a good laugh after that meeting, thinking of how stupid Dumbledore really was to think that Remus would ever betray Sirius trust.

**(Slash Warning!)**

Now however, it was few days before Christmas and Sirius was pacing in the living room of Lux Manerium. He was nervously waiting for Remus to arrive from the DoM and was all the time checking his preparations. It had been three years since they had gotten together and Sirius had decided to prepare them a nice evening at home with romantic dinner and a lot of chocolate, but that wasn't why Sirius was so nervous. He was nervous because he had decided to ask Remus to marry him and he wasn't sure what he would say.

Sirius knew that Remus loved him and wanted to be with him, but his old insecurities might get in the way of his feelings. Remus had always felt he wasn't good enough because of his Lycanthropy and even though it was better now that he had accepted the wolf, Sirius knew that the insecurities were still there. Sirius himself had never cared about Remus' condition and loved him equally with or without his disease.

He heard the door open and saw Remus enter the house covered in snow. He took off his coat and put it on the stand before walking into the living room where Sirius waited for him with a glass of wine, which he accepted with a raise of an eyebrow.

"What's the occasion?" He asked as Sirius led them to the dining room.

"Don't tell me you have forgotten our anniversary, Remy." Sirius said mock offended.

"Of course not." Remus said smiling and pecked Sirius on the lips. "In fact I have a gift for you." He said and handed him a small box. Sirius opened it and found a beautiful watch inside of it.

"It was my dad's." Remus said and Sirius looked at him with a gentle look in his eyes. Remus' father had died the night he was turned into a werewolf, trying to protect his son and Sirius knew how much giving this watch meant to him as he only had a few things from his dad.

"Thank you Remus." Sirius said hugging him. "I love it. Now let's eat before the food gets cold."

The sat down on the table and Remus looked at the food with a hint of suspicion in his eyes. "Please tell me that you didn't make this yourself, Sirius." Remus said. "You know I love you, but you're really bad at cooking."

"Ah, you wound me, Moony." Sirius said pretending to be hurt before he laughed. "Don't worry, Remus, I ordered it from that nearby restaurant."

They laughed and started eating the food and chatting until they had eaten and moved to the living room for dessert, where Sirius had put up a picnic in front of the fireplace. They sat down on the blanket and Sirius opened the small basket and took out a bowl of chocolate mousse and two spoons.

"Chocolate mousse!" Remus exclaimed happily. "My favorite."

"I know." Sirius said laughing as he watched his chocolate-loving boyfriend almost drooling at the sight of the mousse and handed him one of the spoons.

"Mmmm…" Remus moaned as he tasted the mousse. "I love you Sirius." He said.

"I love you too Remus." Sirius smiled and they ate their dessert sometimes feeding each other until the bowl was empty and Remus leaned into Sirius as they watched the dancing flames in the fire place.

"Remus?" Sirius said after a while turning to look at Remus who was leaning onto his chest.

"Hmm?" Remus answered a bit sleepily.

"Will you marry me?" He asked opening a small box where was a beautiful golden ring.

Remus turned to look at him and Sirius could see the deep love he had for him and happiness but also a small bit of fear in them.

"Y-You want to marry me?" Remus asked his voice filled with emotion. "Me, who have nothing to give you…"

"You have everything to give me, Remus." Sirius said gently taking Remus face between his hands. "Your love and friendship is all I need."

"But, you know that Britain doesn't support gay marriages, let alone let someone like me marry." Remus said quiet tears running from his eyes.

"You're making excuses Remus." Sirius sighed. "I love you Remus, and I want to marry you. Just imagine we can get married without any obstacles that come from the fact that we're both male or your furry little problem and answer me; will you marry me?"

"Of course, I will marry you, Sirius, I love you." Remus said his teary eyes shining with happiness. "I just never imagined someone would want to marry me."

"I love you too, Remus." Sirius said glowing with happiness as he wiped the tears from Remus eyes and slipped the ring into his finger. "And while you're right that we can't get married here, there are a lot of other countries that support gay marriages and where your condition won't be a problem."

Remus smiled widely and kissed Sirius deeply before he snuggled back to his chest sighing contently.

"I don't think I have ever felt this happy." He said.

"Me neither." Sirius said burying his face into Remus hair.

"When will we hold the ceremony?"

"How about summer?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, summer's good." Remus said. "I want Sky to be there and he can't come from Hogwarts before summer."

"Summer it is." Sirius said. "We need to tell Sky the good news before we tell anyone else, apart from maybe Marcus. He will kill us or prank us to death if he's last to know."

"You're right." Remus chuckled. "He hates it when he doesn't know what's going on here while he's stuck in Hogwarts with Dumbles. We can tell him when we go there for Christmas."

"Yeah." Sirius smiled.

"Happy anniversary, Remus." He said and gave him a lingering kiss.

"Happy anniversary, Sirius."

**(End of Slash)**

* * *

Nymphadora Tonks was having the worst Christmas possible. Her parents were out of the country and she had had to stay in Hogwarts for Christmas. One of her dorm mates had seen her change her hair color and told everyone that she was a Metamorphmagus and now everyone wanted to see her change her appearances. If she refused they would start bulling her and calling her names, as if she wasn't already having a hard time with her first name. Many times she had cursed her mother for naming her that. Nearly all the girls in Hufflepuff and a few in the other houses were mocking her and she had no friends.

It was Christmas Eve and Tonks was crying in an empty classroom near the Hufflepuff common room, clutching her medallion. Like many times before, when she felt extremely miserable or lonely she would hide in some empty room and reminisce her past. She changed her looks to her original appearance, jet black hair and blue eyes, and thought about her first real family, she could remember.

Tonks couldn't remember how long she had been crying, when a soft voice came from above her and asked:

"You okay?"

She looked up and saw a boy wearing Hufflepuff robes, looking down at her concerned look in his glazed eyes. Tonks remembered seeing the boy in class when Snape yelled at him for not paying attention, even though he did. He just didn't look like he did, being blind. An odd look passed through the boy's face when Tonks looked at him, but she couldn't place it. A moment of silence passed before the boy spoke again his voice barely above a whisper:

"Dora?"

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review and tell me what you think.**

**IMPORTANT: From now on my updates will be less frequent as I have reached the point where I no longer have chapters already written. I also have exams coming in a few months so I need to concentrate on reading quite a bit, but this does NOT mean that I will abandon this story, I just won't be able to update as often as I have. Thanks.**

**-Dalnim**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Thank you for reviews! I'm so sorry it took so long to post this but I'm having a huge writer's block on what to do during Sky's first years and how to deal with the Stone and Quirell etc. If anyone has any suggestions I'd be happy to read them.**

**Aswers to questions: This story is an AU. While Tonks is originally much older than Harry in this story they're the same age. Also the fact that Dora is Sirius cousin and Sirius is Sky's godfather doesn't make them related.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

_'Thoughts'_

"Talking"

* * *

Sky had decided to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. He wanted to keep a closer eye on Quirrell and see if he could figure out what was wrong with him. It was Christmas Eve and Sky was on his way to the kitchens. He had promised to get Sirius and Remus – who had snuck into the castle to spend Christmas with him – some food before meeting them in the Room of Requirement.

As he walked towards the kitchens he heard a faint sound of sniffling coming from the classroom nearby. He walked to the classroom and peeked inside. He saw a first year girl with a black hair curled up in the corner crying. Sky debated for a moment whether to go in or just leave her alone before deciding to see if she was okay. He slipped in and walked quietly towards the girl and asked:

"You okay?"

The girl jumped and looked up straight into his eyes. Sky felt like someone had just poured a bucket of cold water to his neck. Her eyes were deep blue, just like Dora's. The next words came out of his mouth in a whisper without even thinking.

"Dora?"

"H- How do you know that name?" the girl asked him standing up and changing her hair back to pink. _'That's right, she's that Metamorphmagus in my year, her name is Nymphadora Tonks…It's just a coincidence, she's not Dora. It's not possible. You know Dora's dead'_

Sky's eyes shifted into her hand where she was holding a medallion, a very familiar looking medallion. '_It can't be…My medallion. She gave it to me on my sixth birthday…' _

"Where did you get that medallion?" He demanded.

"From a friend… Why? And why did you call me Dora?"

"You… Can I take a look at that medallion?"

"No! Not before you tell me…?" Tonks tried to argue but Sky had already taken the medallion. Inside it was a picture of what could only be her parents, and another one with a four people in it.

"It's really you" Sky whispered. "You're alive."

"What are you talking…?" Tonks started but was cut off by Sky morphing back to his real self.

"Sky" she whispered and pulled him into a bone crushing hug. "You…What…How? I thought you were dead" she sobbed.

Sky answered the hug with same amount of power.

"I thought you dead too." Sky said.

"But how?" Tonks asked. "How did you survive?"

Pulling back to look at her Sky smirked:

"Magic"

"Haa haa… you haven't changed at all." Dora murmured.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Sky smirked.

"Seriously, what happened to you? Where have you been all these years?"

"I've been travelling pretty much all around… the world" Sky started. "Oh shit, what time is it? Sirius is gonna kill me!" He said and grabbed Dora's hand. "Come with me, I'll tell you there."

"Where? Where are we going? And who's Sirius?" Dora asked while running after him.

"You'll see soon. Just follow me. Oh, and in public call me Ray." Sky said and morphed back to his disguise.

They ran to the seventh floor and stopped in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy.

"Sky! What are we doing here? Why did you stop?" Dora whispered.

"You'll see." Sky said and started to pace in front of the tapestry.

"What are you…?" Dora started but was cut off by a door that appeared in front of them. "Oh."

"Well come on, open the door." Sky said smirking at Dora's gaping face.

Dora moved towards the door and opened it. As she stepped inside two wands were pointing at her face.

"Sirius, Remus lower your wands, she's a friend." Sky said coming from behind her.

"Sky, what happened? You were supposed to be here an hour ago, Sirius has been all freaked out that something bad had happened to you. Have you any idea how hard it's been to keep him from going to look for you?" Remus asked pocketing his wand.

"I know, I know, and I'm sorry. I just got caught up in something."

"Aww… our little Prongslet has a girlfriend. Moony, what are we gonna do? Our baby boy is growing up!" Sirius said wiping a fake tear from his eyes.

"Sirius!" Sky exclaimed glancing a very confused looking Dora. "Moony, Padfoot, this is Dora. Dora this is Remus Lupin and Sirius Black."

"You mean The Dora?" Remus asked his eyes wide. "The one from your childhood, who…?"

"Died" Sky finished. "I was wrong, she was alive all along."

"Wow, well it's nice to meet you Dora. We've heard so much about you." Remus said shaking Dora's hand. "And sorry 'bout the wands, Harry has never brought anyone else down here."

"Nice to meet you too. I've never heard about you." Dora said before looking at Sky pointedly. "Harry?"

"Oh, right. We better get comfortable, this may take a while."

The four of them turned and saw that the room had been morphed to look like one of the Hogwarts common rooms. Sky dropped down on one of the sofas and waved Dora next to him.

"Well, you know what happened at the Dursleys, right?" Dora nodded. "But I don't think I ever told you my real name."

"No, you didn't. I don't think any of us ever did."

"Well, my name was Harry Potter."

"Come on, be serious."

"He can't be Sirius, I am!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Padfoot!" Sky and Remus yelled together. "That is so old." Remus continued.

"I am being serious." Sky said, shooting a warning glare at Sirius. "My name was Harry Potter and I survived a killing curse when I was one; ask them if you don't believe me."

"You mean you're telling me, that _you_ are The Harry Potter, the Boy-who-lived, The Vanquisher of You-know-who; The Hero of the wizarding world?" Dora asked incredulously.

"Wow, I didn't know you had so many titles Harry." Sirius said.

"Shut up Padfoot."

"First of, I did survive the killing curse, but I don't know about those other titles and secondly Voldemort isn't dead, he only lost his body and most of his powers."

"You mean he's still out there? How do you know?"

"I've got a photographic memory."

"Wow… Wait, what do you mean your name _was _Harry Potter?" Dora asked confused.

"I don't use it anymore. Nor I'll use it in the future. I haven't been Harry Potter since the day Voldemort killed my parents. At the Dursleys I was always Boy or Freak and since I met you and Blake and Fox I've been Sky. So as far as I'm concerned Harry Potter died with his parents on October 31, 1981."

"So why Sirius and Remus call you Harry?"

"They knew me when my parents were alive, so it's easier for them. No one else is allowed to call me that, to others I'm Ray Evans or just Sky." _'Or Shade' _Sky thought.

"Okay, so will you tell me now, what happened to you after the fire?"

"Sure… I don't remember much about that night. I remember walking with Blake in the alley towards the house. When we reached the house there was a loud boom and it exploded. The last thing I remember was a strange tingling feeling, I don't know how else to describe it. That was probably my magic. The next thing I know, I wake up in a villa and some old man, who introduced himself as Marcus Lee, and started telling me all about my heritage and magic."

"You're lucky Marcus is not here. He would hex you for calling him old." Sirius said.

"Nah, he wouldn't be able to catch him, Harry's too fast." Remus commented.

"Yea, you might be right. I wonder which one of them would win a duel. I mean a _real_ one. Not like one of their mock duels."

"I would pay to see that…"

"ANYWAY, Marcus told me about my parents and why they died and about the prophecy of me and Voldy and…"

"Wait, what prophecy?" Dora asked, while Sky grimaced. He had been hoping to pass the prophecy part.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..." Sky recited dully. "Total bullshit if you ask me... Unfortunately our beloved potions master told Voldemort the first part of it and in his all stupidity Voldy believed it and came after me."

"Snape's a death eater? No wonder he's so mean."

"Yes he is, and well the mean part… that's mostly Sirius, Remus and my dad's fault, but that's a story for another night." Sky said smirking. "Anyway my parents and I went into hiding under Fidelius charm with Sirius as our secret keeper. After a while the war was getting worse and Sirius knew that they would come after him as he was the obvious choice for the keeper, so he came up with a plan where they would switch the secret keeper to Peter Pettigrew and have him go hiding. What they didn't know was that little Wormtail was already Voldemort's man and right after the switch Peter told Voldemort our location and on Halloween he came over to finish me off."

"Not a day goes by that I don't regret that." Sirius said grimly.

"Let it go Sirius, you know I have forgiven you about that." Sky said. "And I don't think my parents would want you to dwell on that for the rest of your life. Besides, do you want me to give you another lecture about 'what ifs'?"

Sirius just shook his head mutely and let Sky continue.

"Thought not." He said before continuing his story. "So my parents died and dear old Dumbles left me on the doorstep of my lovely and loving relatives and you know how well that went." Sky said his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I have lived with Marcus since then and after a few years these two mutts joined us."

"Hey! I take offence in that!" Sirius exclaimed before transforming into Padfoot and tackling Harry to the ground while licking his face.

"Padfoot! Geroff !" Sky yelped before transforming into his panther form.

"Don't mind them." Remus said turning to Dora who watched the scene bemused. "They do that all the time."

"Are you an Animagus too?" Dora asked.

"No, I'm a werewolf." Remus said casually studying Dora's expression. During the years with Sirius, Harry and Marcus he had learned to accept his wolf form and had found out that his transformations had gotten a bit easier after it. He no longer felt so self-conscious about it and had learned to ignore the comments about him being a dark creature. He knew his friends and family loved him and that was enough for him. His engagement with Sirius only confirmed it.

"Really?" Dora asked and Remus could sense no disgust or fear in her – only natural curiosity.

"Yea, been one since I was four."

"Wow, I've never met a werewolf before, but I've read about them. They're not regarded in a very positive light, but you seem like a nice man."

"Thank you, Dora." Remus smiled at her. He decided he really liked her and was glad that she and Sky had found each other again.

After a while Sky and Sirius calmed down and reseated themselves.

"So that was my story. What happened to you?" Sky asked.

"I don't know… I was telling something to Fox and the next thing I know, I wake up in the Saint Mungo's hospital." Dora said a faraway look in her eyes. "When I woke up there was a man and a woman by my said claiming they were my parents. I didn't believe them of course, and demanded they tell me what happened and where you were. They tried to calm me down and told me they didn't know and that they'd found me unconscious outside their house.

"Suddenly an image of a fire appeared in front of my mind and I panicked. I had to get back to the shack and find out what had happened. I ran out of the hospital room to the corridor with the couple chasing after me and shouting to me to stop. The healers I came across tried to catch me too, but I managed to avoid them and get out of there thanks to Blake's self-defense and parkour training. I had no idea where I was or where I was going. I just kept running and wishing to get back to the shack. Suddenly I found myself in the cemetery and ran to the shack.

"There were people around it, whispering, while the police worked carrying the body bags away from there. They said there were no survivors and after seeing what was left of the shack, I knew it to be the truth." Dora said pausing for a moment. "I don't know how long I just stood there in shock, but the people around me started clearing out of there until I was the only one left. I remember slowly walking towards the ruins and finding the medallion I gave you for your birthday covered in blood just outside where the shack's door had been. I picked it up and just broke down crying… I never cried, remember? Not when I fell down and hurt myself. Not when the bastards tortured me on that alley. Not when we killed for the first time. I never cried… until then. Until that moment when I thought you all had died and I was alone." She continued lost in her memories, barely registering Sky's comforting hand on her shoulders or the shocked looks on Sirius and Remus' faces when she told them they had killed. Sky had never mentioned it.

"That's where the Aurors found me a few hours later… I was brought back to the hospital and kept there for a few days. The couple who claimed to be my parents stayed with me for the whole time. During the third day of my stay it was verified that they really were my parents. I was released for their care as my mother was a healer and could take care of me. They brought me back home and told me how I had disappeared.

"It appears that I had been on the platform 9 ¾ with my mum because she had promised to pick one of her cousins kids up and take him home. She said that she had taken her eyes off me only for a few seconds when the train arrived and then I was gone." She finished.

"Do you believe her?" Sky asked.

"Yes, I do." Dora said. "I learned Occlumency a few years back and can now remember it. My Metamorphmagi powers decided to show themselves and I wandered through the barrier to the Muggle world. My mum came looking for me, but couldn't find me due to my changed hair color and features. The son of my mum's cousin convinced her to leave and go alert my dad and the Aurors and then she was gone. Few hours later Fox found me and you know the rest."

"I thought Blake and Fox made a report to the Muggle police about you in case someone was looking for you." Sirius said. "Or at least that's what Sky told us."

"They did, but I had a different look then. The look I took that day stayed way over a year before I was back to normal. My parents wouldn't have recognized me from the pictures."

"How did Fox and Blake react when you changed back to normal?"

"Fox was really surprised, but Blake just raised his eyebrows. It took a few minutes to Fox to calm down, but she did eventually when Blake explained it to her. It turns out Blake was a squib, so he knew quite a lot of the wizarding world."

"I thought he might have been one." Sky mused and they were silent for a moment.

"Are you happy?" Sky asked studying Dora's face and seeing there things Sirius and Remus couldn't. "With your parents I mean."

"I – I don't' know. I mean they're great people and I know they love me, but sometimes… sometimes it feels like they're smothering me. It's not the same our family was." Dora sighed. "It's really hard for them to accept my maturity and independence. They refuse to understand that the little girl they had is gone and there's me instead.

"I feel like I don't fit in anywhere anymore. Not the Muggle School my parents sent me, not here, not even in my own home. I'm always the odd one out whom no one wants to befriend with. I never had any friends after I lost you and it was fine for a while, but sometimes I just feel so alone…"

"I'm here now Dora." Sky said hugging her. "And you better get used to it again, since I'm not going anywhere."

"You better not be." She said burying her face into his shoulder as she hugged him back.

The sweet moment between the two friends reuniting was interrupted by none other than Sirius, whose stomach grumbled loudly, making them all burst out laughing.

"Right… the food." Sky laughed. "Sorry Padfoot, I totally forgot to feed you."

Sirius in all his maturity stuck out his tongue to Sky making them laugh even harder.

"You're such a child, Sirius." Remus laughed.

**Tiny Slash warning!**

"That's why you love me." Sirius said.

"Right you are." Remus said kissing him lightly, which Sirius quickly turned to a full snog.

"Geez, they're like a pair of hormonal teenagers." Sky muttered. "Oi! There are children in here!"

They paid no heed to him and just continued their snogging.

"Unbelievable." Sky muttered. "Come on, let's go get the food. They'll be at it for some time."

"So they're together then?" Dora asked as they stepped out of the Room of Requirement their disguises back on.

"Yeah, been for a few years now. It's only a matter of time till one of them pops the question." Sky said grinning widely. "They're really good for each other. Sirius helps Remus recover from his years of loneliness and Remus helps Sirius recover from his years in Azkaban."

**End of Slash**

"He was in Azkaban?" Dora asked.

"Yeah, for seven years." Sky said. "They threw him there without even a trial, but it's a long story. I'll tell it to you some other time.

Dora just nodded before asking.

"So why do you go by Ray? I mean, I understand why you wouldn't want to go by Harry Potter, but why not use Sky? Better yet, why do you pretend to be blind?"

"Erm… I can't answer that." Sky said. "At least not yet. I need to talk with dad… er Marcus…before I can tell you anything."

"Okay, so what can you tell me?"

"Um… I don't know… How about you ask me questions and I'll answer the ones I can."

"Fair enough." Dora said. "So tell me about your dad."

"Marcus?" Sky asked and Dora nodded. "Well… he's a great man. He was a good friend of my parents. I remember him babysitting me quite a few times when my parents were still alive. I guess he was kinda like a big brother for my dad. Anyway, he had a wife and daughter, who died during Voldemort's Era. After their deaths he took a leave from his work and travelled all around the world only returning to Britain for their anniversary, which was where he found me. His wife and daughter are buried in Saint Mary's. He found me from around the shack and took me under his wing and helped me recover from my past and gave me something to live for.

"I had very hard time accepting that other people than you, Fox and Blake could care about me, and trusting, especially adults. Even now I sometimes get an urge to flinch or hide when I encounter someone." Sky said. "I know there's no reason to, but sometimes the past just caught up with me."

Sky was silent for a moment before continuing.

"Blake talked to me about that, you know, that night. He gave me this dagger and told me not to live in hatred and bitterness, like he did. He told me to learn to trust and that if I ever had a change to get out of the streets, I should take it." Sky said tears forming in his eyes. "He told me he was going to give up his revenge and create a new, better life with Fox and us. He was going to ask her to marry him and get a proper job. Then he would buy a house and sent us to school and we could live like that, happy as a real family." Dora hugged him tightly, tears running down her cheeks as he continued.

"I had never felt so happy when he told me that. I could almost picture it… us living happily ever after out of the streets and danger. And then, in a blink of an eye it was gone, vanished in the ashes." Sky said a faraway look in his eyes and a single tear fell down his cheek. "I have a family now and I wouldn't trade them for anything, but sometimes I wonder what it would've been like had they lived."

"It would've been nice… but there's no point in living in the past." Dora said.

"I know."

They entered the kitchens in silence and took the food before returning to the RoR, both lost in their thoughts. As they entered the room, Dora noticed a third man had joined them.

"Dad!" Sky exclaimed and ran to hug the man. "What are you doing in here? I thought you had to stay at work."

"I did, but then someone reminded me that Christmas is a family holiday." Marcus said hugging him back.

"It was Panther, wasn't it?" Sky grinned.

"Who else?"

"I bet she gave you quite a lecture." Sky said his grin widening as Marcus grimaced.

"I see you have brought a friend with you." Marcus said with a raised eyebrow when he noticed Dora.

"Yea." Sky said grinning widely. "Dora, this is my dad Marcus, Dad this is Dora."

"You mean… your Dora?" Marcus asked his eyes widening.

"Yes! Her magic saved her like mine."

"It's nice to meet you, Sir." Dora said smiling.

"Likewise and please call me Marcus." Marcus said and soon they were all chatting and eating and enjoying their Christmas with each other and as he looked at Dora alive and well, Sky couldn't help but think that it was the best Christmas possible.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review and tell me what you think.**

**By the way, does anyone else have the problem of getting ideas for new fics all the time while you haven't even finished your earlier ones, or is it just me? I have four fic ideas in my head begging to be written and I'm not even halfway through this story. :/ But don't worry this one's my priority! ;)**

**The next chapter will be posted as soon as I get over my block and figure out what to write. Might take a few weeks, but hopefully I will manage to write it earlier. Thanks.**

**- Dalnim**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Thanks for reviews! I finally managed to finish the 14th chapter of Sky. I hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

_'Thoughts'_

"Speak"

_"Parssseltongue"_

* * *

Weeks went by and Sky and Dora got to know each other again, soon being even closer friends than while living in the streets. Sky had spoken to Marcus and asked for permission to tell Dora about his life and training and Marcus had agreed, knowing how much it meant to Sky, but only if he didn't mention his mission or the Department of Mysteries. So, Sky had told Dora of his travels, training and studies without mentioning that he had been trained as an Unspeakable.

Dora had been amazed to learn of his knowledge, but hadn't questioned him of his reasons for coming to Hogwarts – of which Sky was very grateful as he didn't want to lie to her – and much to his surprise she had asked him to train her too.

"After I had settled down back home and got somewhat over your deaths, I made a decision to learn to defend myself both magically and mundane way." She had explained. "My parents didn't want me to, claiming I was too young and tried to coddle me, but as you know I don't like being told to what to do or what not to do and I had already made up my mind. Regardless of their wishes I learned even though I had to do it in secret.

"I enrolled myself to a few martial arts classes – which was easy as I only had to morph myself to look older – and taught myself wandless magic as I couldn't get a wand yet. That's pretty much all I could do by myself, but I want to continue training and I want you to teach me." She finished.

Sky couldn't find any reason to not to, so he had included her into his training sessions, though her level was nowhere near his. In fact, Sky had been happy that she wanted to learn to defend herself as he didn't want her to be helpless when Voldemort came back.

Sky's daily routine stayed the same even during the spring term, only now he was joined by Dora in his training sessions and he spend more of his free time with her, pranking people just like when they were little. The first remarkable change happened in April during one of his potion experimenting nights.

**Flashback**

"Damn!" Sky cussed as he shielded himself from the potion that exploded. Once again his attempt to create a cure for the Lycanthropy had failed. He banished the mess and slumped down defeated.

"Why can't I get it right?" He asked himself. He had tried hundreds of combinations but nothing worked. The closest he had gotten was when he had added Phoenix tears to the potion, but it wasn't enough to prevent the wolf from changing. During his experiments he had accidently found a way to make the potions taste better – he had accidently dropped a piece of chocolate in the potions and suddenly it tasted like chocolate – which helped Remus a lot as the Wolfsbane tasted horrible, but Sky was resolved to find a cure.

He picked himself up and started making the potion again, not willing to give up no matter how many times he failed. He carefully prepared the ingredients before setting the potion up. After a while there was a flash of light and Shadow flashed herself to the RoR.

"Hey girl." Sky greeted her stroking her feathers and Shadow crooned in response.

"What am I missing? The microscope showed your tears fought the wolf-gene in Moony's blood but couldn't conquer it." Sky said absentmindedly. "And every time I tried to add more tears it exploded.

Shadow sang comfortingly for him before taking flight and leaving one of his tail feathers after her before flying to her perch. Sky stared at the feather for a moment before looking at Shadow.

"You want me to add your feather with the tears?" He asked excitement creeping in to his voice. Shadow crooned in agreement before going to sleep and Sky got to work. _'It could work.'_ Sky thought excitedly as he prepared the rest of the ingredients. _'Not much is known about phoenixes' feathers.'_

It took two hours till Sky was at the point when he had to add the new ingredient. Holding his breath he dropped the feather into the cauldron and waited for the impact, ready to shield if it exploded. The potion stirred for a few minutes, slowly turning from brown to dark gray. Anxiously Sky took it off the fire and waited for it to cool down before taking a vial of Moony's blood and adding little of the potions to it. He put it under his microscope and waited for an effect.

Sky watched as the potion absorbed into the blood that held the amber colored wolf-gene. He could see the two substances fighting with each other for dominance until everything turned red. Sky waited for a few minutes to see if the effect was permanent, but nothing happened. It seemed that the only thing left was Remus' blood.

Sky observed the blood for nearly half an hour, not daring to wish that he had really succeeded, when suddenly he saw a faint blue vein appear in the blood. He quickly changed Remus' blood sample to Sirius' and saw that they were the same. Both had a faint blue vein in their blood and Sky knew that he had it too, for they were Animagus.

Sky stared at the samples in shock checking that they were the same over and over again before it finally sank into him – he had found the Cure.

"Yes. Yes, yes yes!" Sky whooped. "I did it, I did it! Yes!"

He jumped around the room and hugged Shadow, who was not happy for being woken up from her nap, though she crooned happily as she saw her human so happy. Sky continued his cheering and dancing around the room and didn't notice Dora entering.

"What are you doing?" She asked clearly amused as she saw her friend acting so out of character as he whirled around the Room. Sky just grinned and pulled her with him whirling her around repeating 'I did it' over and over again.

"What did you do?" Dora laughed trying to stop the dizziness.

"I found the cure! I found the cure for Remus!" Sky grinned happily.

Dora stared at him in shock before shrieking and hugging him tightly.

"Oh my god! Congratulations!" She said. "I knew if anyone could do it, it would be you."

"Thanks." Sky said blushing lightly. He was still not overly comfortable with compliments.

"When are you gonna tell Remus?"

"I don't know." Sky said. "I need to make sure it truly works and that I can make more before I risk giving it to him. According to my observations it should change the wolf into an Animagus form."

"Wow." Dora said. "So how did you do it?"

"It was actually Shadow who helped me out." He grinned. "She told me to use both Phoenix's tear and a tail feather, and it worked."

"I have never heard of using a Phoenix's tail feather in a potion." Dora said in amazement.

"Me either. That's probably why no one has ever found a cure before."

"Yeah. Just imagine how many potions could be created if added a tail feather."

"I know, but Phoenix' feathers are not exactly a common thing to come by." Sky said.

"True." Dora agreed.

"Anyway, what brings you here in the middle of the night?" Sky asked.

"In the middle of the night? It's nearly eight in the morning, Sky." Dora laughed. "I came to get you, when I didn't see you at breakfast."

"What?!" Sky exclaimed casting a tempus charm. It showed 07.47. "Damn, I've been here the whole night. And I missed my morning workout."

"You haven't slept at all?" Dora asked.

"Guess not. I've been too focused on brewing, but frankly, I think finding the cure is worth losing one night's sleep." Sky said.

"True, but now you're coming with me to the kitchens to eat some breakfast and then we need to get to class. You can sleep there." Dora said with a voice that clearly said 'no arguments'.

"Geez, you're as bad as Panther or Alice." Sky muttered rolling his eyes before lifting his hands in surrender as Dora glared at him. "Fine, just let me clear this up and then we can go."

**End of Flashback**

Sky had yet to send the cure for Remus as the full moon had just passed and he wanted to observe it to be sure it was safe and had no serious side effects. Plus he thought the cure would be a perfect wedding present for the pair, though Sky thought he would probably give it to Remus in advance since the wedding wouldn't be till June and he didn't want Remus to suffer because of his disease anymore.

Now however Sky's mind was far from Remus and the Cure as he thought back to his latest encounter with Quirrell.

**Flashback**

Sky was walking towards his charms class lost in his thoughts as he bumped into someone and lost his balance. He looked up and saw that the person he bumped into was no other than Quirrell, who was hurriedly adjusting his turban.

"I'm sorry for bumping into you, professor. I should've paid more attention to my surroundings." Sky said his voice sincere.

"I-It'ss q-quite a-alright, M-Mr. E-Evans." Quirrell stuttered looking down right terrified. As he stumbled forward past him, Sky could swear he heard a quiet hissing sound and could detect the words 'punish' and 'incompetent fool'.

**End of Flashback**

And that was what Sky was pondering at the moment. He was sure the words were said in Parseltongue, but Quirrell couldn't be a Speaker, could he? No, it would be know if he was – there hadn't been a Speaker since Riddle, except for Sky of course, and the DoM would know if there was. They kept track of things like that.

_"Why do you look ssso troubled, SSSky?" _Dexter hissed as he slithered down his arm.

_"I wasss thinking about Quirrell."_ Sky said.

_"I do not like that human."_ Dexter said and Sky had to bit his tongue to not to point out that the snake didn't like humans as a rule apart from few selected like Sky, Marcus, Remus, Dora and Sirius – though he still liked to scare Sirius at times.

_"He sssmellsss foul."_ The snake continued.

_"What do you mean foul?"_ Sky asked frowned.

_"There isss sssomething wrong with hisss aura. It isss tainted."_ Dexter said.

_"Why do you think that isss? And do you think he could be a SSSpeaker?"_

_"No, he isss not a SSSpeaker, but he carriesss sssomething with him that ssspeaksss. I do not know what it isss, but it isss not a ssserpent." Dexter said curling himself lazily around Sky's wrist._

_"I knew I heard Parssseltongue when I bumped into him yesterday."_ Sky said more to himself._ "Now I jussst need to find out what it isss."_

_"The thing sssaid he would punisssh him for nearly exposssing him and called him an incompetent fool." _Dexter hissed.

_"You heard what he said?" _Sky asked in amazement. He had forgotten Dexter had been around his wrist when he bumped into Quirrell. And usually even when he was with him, Dexter slept most of the time, so he hadn't thought to ask his familiar if he had heard something. _"Why didn't you say something?"_

_"Becaussse you didn't asssk." _Dexter said smugly before going back to sleep.

Sky just rolled his eyes at him and muttered something about cheeky serpents.

* * *

Marcus smiled as he sat in his office reading at the latest letter Sky had sent him along with his report. He told him about all the pranks he had gotten up to with Dora and Marcus couldn't help but smile at the thought of Sky acting his age like he was supposed to. Dora was really good to him and brought out the childish side of Sky more often, though Marcus could see from the first meeting that the girl, like Sky, was mature for her age.

It still bothered Marcus a little of how he hadn't realized he had only seen two burned bodies before he found Sky and not three. He should've realized it and maybe Sky hadn't gone through so much pain at the time. Marcus had always know that while Sky had loved Fox and Blake, Dora had been the most important of them to him and the one he missed the most. He could hear it in his voice every time he talked about them and Marcus was very glad they had found each other again.

The guilt though, that he felt for not realizing Dora wasn't in the shack, was quickly demolished by Sky back in Christmas.

**Flashback**

Marcus stood looking out of the window the RoR provided him, lost in his thoughts. He thought back to the day he had found Sky and tried to figure out how he had missed the fact that Dora could be alive.

After hearing Dora's story from Sky he had started thinking and was now replaying the scene in his mind. He watched the memory play out and didn't even have to watch it to the end when he realized his mistake – he had only seen two bodies. He had never thought about it before, but he had only encountered two bodies and neither of them had been fitting to be a six-year-old girl's. He had only assumed all inhabitants in the shack had died, after Sky had told him of his family, apart from Sky and not thought about the fact that he only saw two bodies.

The guilt crept over him as he thought of what he could've done had he checked the facts. He could have tracked Dora down. Sky would have had his best friend with him as he grew up and he wouldn't have been so mature for his age. He could have had a better childhood with a friend of his age – he would have been happier.

"Marcus?" He heard a voice call him from behind him and turned around to see Sky's emerald eyes looking at him concerned. "You okay?"

"I'm fine Sky." Marcus said dismissively, but Sky folded his arms and gave him a look 'I know you better than that', and he sighed.

"I'm sorry Sky."

"For what?" Sky asked confused.

"For not realizing before… I saw two bodies in the shack when I found you. Neither of them could have been Dora's, but I never thought about it after finding you. I was the one who told you they were all dead and I didn't even verify the facts. You told me there were three others with you in the shack, but I never realized I only saw two of them." Marcus sighed. "Had I realized… We could have found her and you could have had a better childhood… You wouldn't have had to go through all the pain…"

"Marcus… _Dad_." Sky said stopping his tirade. "There is nothing to apologize for. You couldn't have known there wasn't a third body even though you only saw two – you didn't have time to search the whole shack, did you? And sure, you could have checked from the police or something, but you had me to take care of and worry about. _Me_, who was abused and scared and needed you to get through me and help me out of all the blocks and everything… Besides, it was me who told you there were three others. Why wouldn't you have believed me? And I couldn't have had much better childhood than the one I have had. You know I was never really a child, not even then, and you let me keep the little innocence I had left in me. You took me to amusement parks and zoos and Quidditch matches and played with me and taught me and gave me space when I needed it and just were there when I needed you.

"It would have been nice to have Dora there with me or at least know she was alive and okay, but I wouldn't change my childhood for anything. Not for my biological parents or Fox and Blake. You, Sirius and Remus are my family. You are my dad. Now get over it and get it into your thick head that you're the best dad a kid like me could ask for. You heard what Dora said about her parents – they don't accept her maturity and independence." Sky finished his rant.

Marcus stared at the boy he thought as his son for a moment before pulling him into a hug.

"You're right, Sky, as always." He said as he hugged him tightly.

"Why is it always me that has to keep these rants at you?" Sky mumbled into his shoulder and Marcus laughed.

"I love you kiddo." He said.

"I love you too dad."

**End of Flashback**

Marcus knew Sky had been right, but still a small part of him doubted himself as a parent. He felt like he had failed his daughter for not being able to protect her and his wife and now he tried to be there for his son. He would do anything to make sure Sky would be safe and could protect himself.

Marcus shook himself out of his thoughts and finished the letter before turning to the report. He skimmed it through and found himself worried about the part with Quirrell. There was definitely something wrong with that man. He only hoped Sky and Flitwick would find out what until it was too late.

* * *

"Mr. Evans." Flitwick said as he dismissed the class. "If you'd stay for a moment."

"Sure, professor." Sky said and nodded to Dora, who then left with the other students. "What can I do for you?" He asked putting up privacy charms as everyone left.

"I heard about your recent suspicions of Quirrell from Marcus." Flitwick said and Sky nodded. "Do you have any idea what it could be? I have discreetly scanned him with more than a few charms but found nothing. He is not under any curses or potions."

"I know I did that too on the very first day I arrived here." Sky said. "I think it has something to do with his turban. There's a very strange smell around him, I'm sure you have noticed."

"Yes, I have. There are very amusing rumors about it among the students." Flitwick chuckled.

"Yeah." Sky smirked. He had heard everything from garlic to a vault for his money. Both agents sat lost in their thoughts for a moment before Sky said:

"I think there's a possibility that he's being possessed."

"Possessed?!" Flitwick exclaimed his eyes widening. "By whom?"

"Voldemort." Sky said curtly as it was obvious.

"But he is dead. Young Harry Potter killed him ten years ago." Flitwick said bemused.

"Marcus didn't tell you?" Sky asked raising his eyebrow in surprise. "Voldemort didn't die that night. He only lost his body and vanished. His spirit still lingers here trying to regain a new body. And I think I mentioned it when I first told you of my suspicious."

"Dear Merlin, I had no idea. I probably missed it, if you mentioned it – it was quite a shocking evening after all. We haven't had that much of excitement in years…" Flitwick trailed off. "And no, Marcus never told me any of it. But then again I haven't been in very close contact with the DoM since the last War. I like many others left to pursue another career, only I found my passion in teaching. I only send an occasional report when the Headmaster was up to something questionable or the spies among the students needed to contact the DoM. I have only been back as an active agent since last summer when Marcus informed me of your arrival."

Sky nodded in understanding. "Once an Unspeakable, always an Unspeakable." He stated.

Marcus had told him of the numerous agents that had left the DoM after the War to pursue their dreams and to start a family or something. Being an Unspeakable was a life-long attachment, but it didn't mean they had to be active all their life. There were many ministry employees, shop owners, curse breakers, Quidditch players and everything one could think of, who were Unspeakables, who had gone through the training but weren't working actively for the DoM. They were required to return to service, so to speak, in time of crises and wars like Voldemort's first era, but were otherwise free to do what they wished. Many of them – especially in the Ministry – kept an eye on things and reported back to the DoM, which was how the DoM was so knowledgeable of everything that went on in the wizarding world. One could say they had ears and eyes everywhere in Britain, in both magical and mundane side.

"Yes." Flitwick said. "Now, why do you say Voldemort didn't die ten years ago?"

"It's not clear yet how he survived, but survive he did…" Sky said and then proceeded to tell Flitwick of Marcus' investigation at the house in Godric's Hollow and of how Harry Potter survived the killing curse.

"And now you think he is possessing Quirrell in order to get to the Stone." Flitwick concluded.

"Yes and I think Quirrell is doing it willingly. It would explain why none of the detection spells worked as they only work when someone is forced to do something against his/her will. It would also explain why I heard Parseltongue when I bumped into him a last week. Voldemort is the only Parseltongue at the moment apart from myself."

"You're a Parselmouth?" Flitwick said in amazement.

"Yes."

"Fascinating!" Flitwick said excitedly. "Now however we must do something about Quirrell. We can't just inform the Headmaster of it; he will no doubt let the matter slide without alerting the proper authorities."

"We can't inform the Ministry either so long as Fudge is in power - at least not without enough witnesses. He will try to cover the fact that Voldemort is still alive even with solid evidence. He's too much of a coward to face the truth and do something about it." Sky commented.

"So what shall we do?" Flitwick mused.

"I have an idea." Sky said with a mischievous smirk that would make the Marauders proud. And so the plotting began.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it. Please review and tell me of your thoughts on the story.**

**The next chapter might take a while as I'm writing my studentexamen in few weeks and I gotta read. Please be patient with me. I will update as soon as I can. :)**

**- Dalnim**


	15. Chapter 15

**Anyway, answers to some questions: I'm not telling you about who Sky will be paired yet, but unfortunately for Slash fans, it will be a ****girl.**** If you want to read Slash fics, I have written a few, which can be found in my profile.**

**Also there will be at least one Horcrux, maybe more, but at the moment I'm leaning towards not making Sky one. It may change in the future.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

_'Thoughts'_

"Speaking"

* * *

The plan was set. Sky had met up with Marcus and laid out his idea to him and Marcus had agreed to do it, only offering a few suggestions to improve it. Now they only needed to wait for the right time.

Now however, Sky was entering the Hufflepuff Common room and wondering about the crowd gathered around the notice board.

"What's going on?" He asked sitting next to Dora by the fireplace.

"Sprout just put up a notice about the upcoming career's council for fifth years. Everyone's looking at the pamphlets about different jobs." Dora said.

"Have you ever thought about what you want to do when the time comes?" Sky asked curiously. "I mean we didn't have much job choices when we were little… we only worked for survival." He said lowering his voice.

"I don't know…" Dora said and Sky noticed a small blush rise on her cheeks.

"What?" He asked and Dora shook her head. "Come one, tell me. It can't be that bad."

"I just… it's silly." Dora murmured before taking a deep breath. "Fine, just promise you won't laugh. I want to be an Unspeakable." She said folding her arms, daring him to laugh. "There, I said it."

Sky just stared at her incredulously, but not for reasons she thought.

"An Unspeakable?"

"Yeah."

"What brought this on?" Sky asked curiously. "I mean it's said that they don't really exist."

"I know, but there must be some truth to the rumor that the Ministry has some kind of special force or research team, whatever. And I have seen an Unspeakable." She said seriously.

"You have seen one?" Sky asked raising an eyebrow, his face revealing nothing.

"Yes." Dora said. "It was about a year after I had returned home. My dad had to take me with him, when he visited the Ministry and I saw a man or a woman, don't know which, in a grey, hooded cloak. I asked my dad what the color stood for and he told me it was Unspeakable. After that the thought just stuck with me. You know how I've always loved mysteries and I want to know what they do. If the rumors are right and they are some kind of special force then it's exactly the kind of job I want." She said. "But I guess I'm just going to be stuck with being an Auror or a Hit-Wizard."

Sky looked at her stunned. He couldn't believe Dora wanted to be an Unspeakable of all the possible careers. But this would only make his job easier as he had thought to ask if Marcus would let Dora join them, if she wanted to that is. Sky wanted to train Dora like he was trained so he wouldn't have to worry so much, with Voldemort trying to come back and all. And to be honest, Sky wanted her by his side. She was his best friend and they moved well together. They knew each other better than themselves and could communicate with just one look. Dora would be a great asset to the Unspeakable force.

"You never know what happens in the future. You might just get to be an Unspeakable. You have a few years to go and maybe you find out more about them." He said and Dora gave him a small smile, which told Sky she didn't believe him, but appreciated the gesture.

If only she knew.

* * *

The rest of the year passed by quickly and soon all exams were done and there was only a few days of school left. Quirrell had yet to make a move towards the Stone, but Sky was still keeping tabs on him closely with the help of Flitwick of course. But now, they decided, it was time to put the plan to expose Voldemort, in action.

Sky, Marcus and Flitwick had originally agreed to wait till Quirrell made his move so they could catch him red-handed and hand him over to the proper authorities – namely Madam Bones, the Head of the DMLE and Rufus from the Aurors – but as it was, Quirrell hadn't done anything so they agreed to expose him in other ways.

Knowing they would need a lot of witnesses they decided it was best to have the whole school there so they had Flitwick suggest an informal feast to celebrate the end of the exams in a staff meeting, which Dumbledore of course thought a great idea. As the feast was compulsory, everyone had to attend and Quirrell wouldn't be able to skip eating in the Great Hall as he had done for the past week or so. Sky had also hired the Weasley twins to make sure everyone's gazes would be on Quirrell by sending them another letter as Shade, Son of Prongs and the boys had of course eagerly agreed.

The plan was very simple: get everyone's attention on Quirrell and expose Voldemort, who Sky was sure, was hiding under that turban. Then Flitwick would quickly cast a spell on him that would contain Voldemort's spirit and prevent him from escaping. Everyone would see that Voldemort was still 'alive' and Dumbledore wouldn't be able to keep it under the wraps as all the children would surely tell their parents as soon as they got home and news in the wizarding world travelled fast. Not to mention that they would turn the spirit in to Bones and Rufus.

Now however, it was show time.

Sky entered the Great Hall discreetly gazing around. Nearly all the students were already seated – Dora included – and only Quirrell was missing from the staff, just like Sky had planned by casting a spell on him that would make him be slightly late. Giving a small, discreet nod to Flitwick he seated himself next to Dora at the end of the table, close to the door. He saw Flitwick lean to Dumbledore and knew that he was suggesting that Dumbledore begin the feast assuring him that Quirrell would surely join them later. Dumbledore nodded and stood up putting on a huge grandfatherly smile on his face. The Hall quickly quieted down and Sky could feel Dumbledore's magic washing over them. _'So that's how he does it.'_ Sky thought.

"Ah, welcome everyone." Dumbledore said beaming at them. "And congratulations on finishing the last of your exams today. We decided that a feast was in its place after all the studying you all have done for your exams and…" Dumbledore trailed off as a loud bang was heard by the entrance door and Quirrell entered the Hall. "Ah, Quirinus, how nice of you to join us." Dumbledore said his eyes twinkling.

The whole hall burst out laughing at the sight of the Defense professor. He was wearing bright pink and neon colored robes and his turban was rainbow colored.

"I-I'm s-sorry I-I'm l-late, H-Headmaster." Quirrell stuttered.

"It's quite alright my boy." Dumbledore said jovially and Sky felt like puking at how fake the old coot was. "Come, take a seat, I was just finishing up my speech."

As Quirrell started walking towards the staff table with all the students still staring at him and sniggering, Sky discreetly waved his hand towards the man and suddenly the turban started unwrapping itself. Before no one could do anything the turban was off and a second face was revealed on the back of the professor's head.

Chaos ensued.

The laughter quickly turned into shrieks of horror and students started panicking and running around the Hall, but Sky stayed where he was. He stared at the snake-like face of the man who had murdered his parents and for a moment their eyes locked and Sky could see a recognition flash through his eyes till anger replaced it and the spirit started fighting his host's body. Knowing Flitwick had Voldemort under control Sky slipped among the other students. He morphed his voice into a different one and cast a Sonorus upon himself yelling:

"It's Voldemort! You-Know-Who is back! The Dark Lord has returned!"

Ending the spell he smiled inwardly as he watched the plan to play out. The students were panicking even more at the sight of a face sticking from the back of their Defense teacher's head and the fact that they now knew who he was, leaving Sky a perfect change to slip away unnoticed. He quickly shadowed himself to the third-floor corridor and entered.

He kept to the shadows as he slipped past Fluffy and made his way through the traps. It was really unbelievable how easy the traps were, but then again they were meant to test Harry Potter. Sky shook his head in amusement and entered the last room.

He frowned as looked around the room. The pedestal where the Stone had been when Sky had last been there at the beginning of the year was gone and instead there was a huge mirror in its place. He slowly approached it till he stood right in front of it and looked at his reflection. What he saw shocked him to the core.

Sky saw himself looking happier than ever before. Beside him, he saw Dora, Marcus, Remus, Sirius, Fox, Blake, his biological parents and people who could only be his grandparents, all looking happy and waving at him. But what shocked him the most was the small baby he held in his arms. She could be no more than a few months old and had the brownest eyes he had ever seen and a tuft of copper hair.

As he wondered who she was, the image started to change; the people around him disappeared until only he was left. He saw his reflection taking out the Stone from his pocket and winking at him before putting it back and suddenly Sky felt the Stone's weight against his leg. He put his hand into his pocket and found he really had the Stone on him. Shrugging he put it back to his pocket before taking another look at the mirror. The previous picture was back, but Sky tore his eyes from it and looked at its frames. He frowned as he saw the text in the frame, but couldn't detect the language it was written in. _'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi' _Sky racked his brain trying to figure out the text's meaning until it hit him. 'I show you not your face but your heart's desire.'

_'Of course. Mirror writing…'_ Sky mused. _'So that is my heart's desire…'_

With one last look into the mirror Sky shadowed out of the room with the Stone and rejoined the chaos in the Great Hall. The students were still panicking and even Dumbledore's calming magic couldn't get them to calm down while Flitwick was battling with Quirrell and Voldemort's spirit. The spell he cast was an old charm that was used to capture spirits, but it seemed that it wasn't working properly towards Voldemort.

Sky could see Flitwick tiring as he tried to hold the spell on, but for some reason Voldemort was able to fight it and it seemed to Sky that he was winning. Pushing through the crowd Sky started to move towards them as fast as he could in order to help the professor, but he was too late.

Voldemort broke through the spell and left Quirrell's body, which collapsed dead on the floor, and fled the castle before anyone could do anything. Seeing Flitwick collapse exhausted on the floor Sky moved to help him, but decided against it as he saw McGonagall reach him and help him up. Catching Flitwick's eye, he signaled that he would see him later and went off to find Dora.

It took fifteen more minutes for the teachers to get the students to calm down and get them back to their Common Rooms. Their food was delivered for them to their rooms and everyone was feeling anxious and discussing the happenings on the Great Hall. After they had eaten Sprout had come to them and told them to get to bed, refusing to answer any questions saying that the Headmaster would address the issue the next morning at breakfast. Disgruntledly the students went to bed, but Sky was happy as he could go to see Flitwick as soon as the Common Room was empty. Saying goodnight to Dora, Sky followed the other Hufflepuff boys to the dorm and impatiently waited as they did their evening rituals and went to bed.

Finally, half an hour later Sky was able to slip out unnoticed and shadow into the hospital wing where he was sure Flitwick would be residing in. Entering the hospital wing he found it empty apart from Flitwick who was lying on the furthest bed from the door.

Casting a privacy shield around them Sky asked:

"What happened?"

"Everything went according to the plan until I cast the spell and it didn't work properly. I did everything right, the incantation, wand movement, but it didn't work like it should have." Flitwick said. "Voldemort shouldn't have been able to fight the spell, but somehow he could and it drained me until I couldn't hold the spell anymore."

"Do you have any idea what could have caused that?" Sky asked frowning.

"No. There's nothing I could think of."

"Well at least the students saw him and the wizarding world will learn that threat of Voldemort is not gone yet, as soon as they kids get home and tell their parents of it." Sky said.

"Yes." Flitwick said tiredly. "That is a good thing. The ministry will have time to prepare. Not even Fudge can ignore this."

Sky nodded in agreement.

"Get some rest Agent Mars, I will contact Marcus and tell him what happened." He said and left the room. He needed to speak with his father.

* * *

The next morning dawned and Sky woke up to find the dorm empty. He cast a tempus charm and found that it was nearly eleven, which meant that breakfast would end in a half an hour. He wasn't really surprised he had slept as late as it had been four am when he had finally gotten back to the dorm after meeting with his dad. They had discussed for hours about the happenings of the Great Hall and threw in some theories about why the spell didn't work as it should have. They also spoke about what they would do in the summer as they school year was ending in a few days.

Sky dragged himself out of the bed to the bathroom and took a quick shower before dressing, and making his way to the Great Hall. Frowning he walked through the Hall his gaze on the students who were chatting with each other like nothing had ever happened last night. Spotting Dora on the Hufflepuff table he walked to her and sat down next to her.

"What's going on?" He asked quietly.

"Oh, hi Ray." Dora smiled brightly. "What do you mean what's going on?"

"Yesterday, with Quirrell." Sky said rolling his eyes. "Has Dumbledore said something?"

"Oh, you heard about that too?" Dora asked.

"About what?"

"About the rumor that Quirrell has disappeared." Dora whispered. "There are lots of different versions going around. Some say he died and others that he just took off and left."

Sky stared at her incredulously. What was she talking about? Everyone saw Voldy's face sticking from the back of Quirrell's head and saw Quirrell die as the spirit left him. Why was she speaking about Quirrell's disappearance?

Sky scanned around the room listening to the other student's conversations and heard the very thing Dora told him about. They were all speculating what happened to the defense teacher and no one mentioned anything about the events of the day before. He shifted his gaze to the staff, which was all looking calm, minding their own business. Only Flitwick was missing and Quirrell, of course and Dumbledore had a twinkle in his eyes and a smug look on his face that Sky found he did not like a one bit. _'What did you do old man?'_ He thought.

Concentrating back on the students Sky used Legilimency on a few and was shocked at what he found. They were all memory charmed. There was a block on their memories of the night before and the rumors about Quirrell and new memories of the feast were planted on them. All traces of Voldemort being alive were gone.

Sky pulled back out of the student's mind and discreetly waved his hand at the food on the table. It was just as he thought: all the students were fed a potion that blocked and altered their memories of the events regarding Quirrell. Sky turned back to the teachers and saw that Dumbledore was leaving the Hall, and took a chance to check the teachers. He used Legilimency on Sprout and saw that she was thoroughly Obliviated and found that all the other teachers were too.

Deciding he needed to see Flitwick he told Dora he had something to do and exited the Great Hall and made his way to the hospital wing. He thankfully found it empty apart from Flitwick, who was still lying on the same bed as the night before.

Once again Sky cast a privacy bubble around them and spoke:

"What is the last thing you remember, agent Mars?"

Flitwick raised an eyebrow in question, but answered nonetheless. "We were going to carry out the plan yesterday at the feast, but Quirrell disappeared."

Sky nodded. Flitwick too had been Obliviated it seemed.

"Quirrell is dead. He died last night when Voldemort's spirit left his body when our plan to capture him failed. It seems the Headmaster has Obliviated you as well as every other people in this castle apart from me." Sky said. "If I may, I can restore your memories for you."

Flitwick looked at him shocked before nodding. "Please do."

Sky entered the professor's mind and started working on the block that surrounded the memories of the night before. Bit by bit it started to break and twenty minutes later it finally broke and Flitwick remembered what had happened again.

"That manipulative old bastard!" He cursed. "He came in here last night and Obliviated me when I was barely awake and too weak to fight back."

"He has erased the memories of the whole school. There was a potion in the breakfast and it seems he personally took care of the staff. Everyone seems to think that Quirrell only vanished and have no memory of seeing Voldemort."

"So our plan to get the world aware of the threat Voldemort poses was for nothing." Flitwick sighed tiredly.

"It would seem so. We cannot restore the memories of all the students." Sky said.

"Have you told Marcus?"

"Not yet. I only just found out and came straight here." Sky said. "I will send him a message later."

"I can't believe Dumbledore actually altered our memories." Flitwick said.

"I can. I should have seen it coming after all he's done. We underestimated him. But that won't happen again." Sky muttered.

Flitwick nodded thoughtfully.

"The rule number one, never underestimate your enemy." He said. "I believe it's time for me to join you back at the Agency during the summer. Being just a teacher has left me a bit rusty. It's time to sharpen the blades."

"We will be glad to have you back, Agent Mars." Sky said and gave him a small bow that showed his respect. He had heard a lot about Flitwick back when he started as an active agent. He and his dueling skills we a legend among the Force just like Sky's grandfather had been.

Flitwick returned his bow and Sky left back to his dormitory to write his report to Marcus. Damn Dumbledore for making his life difficult – again.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review and if you have any suggestions they are very welcome!**

**Thanks,**

**- Dalnim**


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